PA~E~ BY~ P¶~S, U~RD~SD4Y, NQV~MBE~ 2Z 1~9$~ e pu r- The effort must continue. We don't roter ta the hard VOICE 0F TH E COUNMTY TOWN The on!>' Whitby newspaper independenti Whitby residents for Whitby residents'. work that's aiready been show n by volunteers for- the United Way' for Oshawa, WhtbyadNwat. Rathor, that. effort muet Corne t ramrosidonts, ln the f orm of contributions. The'.totale aren't- yet ln, but lts obvlous that the campalgn goal of $3 mllllor willi.flot be motunls contributions continue. As of lest week, $630,O000 More was neodod, and arganizers say $5 or $10' donations would bo gratofully acceptod. ýlubIished ývery Wednesda, By 677209 Ontario Imc. Phone: 668-61 11 427-1834 Doug Anderson Publisher. 131 Brook Street North, owne andopeatedb>'P.01. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. A united efr t's diff Icuit ta givo whon ail one hears le talk of recossion. But a dim economy also moans a dlm lifostyle for many residents unlose they recol1vo the services fundod mostly by the Unlted Way, tram the ay Maurice Pifher Editor Alexandra, Martin" Production Manager 2nd GlassPostai Regisiration #05356T maonlierlsod 'in thee curren campalgn. In tact, tho Unltod Way supports over 40,such service agencles. Those contributions may corne tram one's workplace or» een ndlv.ldualiy. The f undraislng Initiative aiready shown by seveéral Whitby companles has beon admir- able, many of thase companies exoeeding lest year's numbers dospito the gioomy oconomnic weather. The timing le just rlght for other businesses and Individuals ta stop In and help ralse the funds necossary t0 maintain the vîtl services that benetit so many In our area. Transportation options demand close scrutin To the editor A week or two ega your paer carried a public notice with regard te The. Royal Commission an National Passenager Transport- ation. The Commisson -held public heringe in Toranto and ltes unfortunate that trees don't have sex pel Our foresta are extremeély important to ai=f s economically as well as ecologfically. Yet it's hard to get moSt pole excited or worked up about trees. We may like to look at themn, but we assume they'1l always be around, somewhere. That attitude was ail too evident last weelc when the Committee on Forestry presented ita comprehensive report to the House of Conunons. After inonths of hearings and interviewing scores of experts, the committee made a number of wel-reasoned recommendations about how we must develqp and sustain Canad's. foreets and the industries dependent on them. Appearance of the report right be compared with what happens when a tree fails over ini distant woode - nobody heard it. Media coverage was virtuaily non-existent. Other, more sexy, anews items monopolized the day's headlines. Canada bas a strangely ambivalent attitude to its trees. While most of us claim toerenoy "the woods," were carelees with them. More than a centuryagol, Sir John A. Macdonald looked out a window at the hundreds of log booms floating down the Ottawa River and wondered how long the forests could endure such clear-cutting. Yet it wasn't until 1960 that a separate federal Department of Forestry was created. Within a decade it had disappeared through government re-shufig At theà time a public servant conimented somewhat cynicly again alluding to sex appeal: It takes about 40 years to grow a tree, but politiciens have te be elected every four years." A fuil-scale department, Forestry Canada, was re-established earlier this year. The Housecmit.i t report provides the background philosophy and a blueprint for what the new department could and should b. doeng. Sustainable development is a basic theme. Our forests must b. maintained and replenished so they can be used and enjoyed, and passed undiminished to *future generations. Commercial timber is like other crops - its grows and matures, te be harvested and then replaced with new seedlings. Anyone familiar with commercial lumbering wiIl know, that sustainability does not simply mean maintaining the sttus quo. We have a great deal of catching up te do on reforestation. There are broader international obligations on us and our forests. While much is heard about burning Amazon rainforests, and how they harm the, earth's ecology, few- consider the- importance of our own depleting fetsw to the ,lobal eypem.' The. dollar value- of, our trees isimpressive,. Foreat indutis employ almast' a million pole, wh ch is. one of every 14 working Canadfians. Exporteof forest-related producta bring ii more than $40-billion per year - more than, agriculture, nuning, energy and fisheries combined.e Foresta make up almost half of the national landscape. 'More than any other geographic feature,"" said the repart, "they literally constitute t he face of Canada, and for a. growing nuinher of Canadian citizens our foresta' represent the environmental spirit of aur country. Forests contibute in a wide variety of ways to the quality of aur lives, and' they demand our care in cautiousg, compatible and committed ways." A growing awareness of this means public views and values sometimes are out in firont of government actions and the forest industries, as we've witnessed during anti-logging demonstrations. I consider this an excellent report, full value for ail the time and money spent preparing its 140 pages. We must ail ensure' that its message is heard and kept high on the agenda. asked for indi-viduels te let them know what their views were on aur future passeenger transporta- tion aystm. ether or not this Royal Commission wiil do anything useful does not take away fr-om the extremeély impor- tant fact that aur transportation systemse including cars, public transit, trains, trucks and airplenes have a tremnendous impat on o ur environment. yNearlscientiflc evidence indicates that we.are heading te an environmental crisis. Theère are many voices that Say we are there now. We wiil likely have a much btter idea about it in another ten or twenty years. Unfortunately, at that time, the answer may simply b. that if we had acted with a fuI commitment ta reversing the damage through- out the 90s it wouldn't b. toa late in the year 2000. It seeme ta me that we would b. foolish and irresponsible care- takers of our children's future ta wait until we -are 100 par cent sure that thore is a problem of crisis proportions. Thus ail passenger transportation options muet b. evaluated on the bais of their overaîl effecton aur envi- ronment. This means not juet looking at exbaust emissions, but the infra-structures , roadway, .right-of-ways - termuinalse the efen bat resulte from manufacturing vehicles and al their camponont parts including fuel - the energy used throughout the system eand many, many other related factura. A key concept here is that transportation is not an isolated element of Canadien society. It is integral and interrelated. W. cannot functian as a country or society or/sa individuels without transportation. Imagine aur country if we did not have !any form of transportation other than aur own two legs. It is difficult ta comprehend how different Canadien eociety and aur livos would b.. At the same time, aur variaus forms of transportation bave aiea had an impact of similar proportions on a ur environment. Would w. have. an environmental crisis if w.e neyer developed the modes of trans- portation and the necessary infra-structures that w. now bave? Cleerly, we would not. But we can't go back. W. muet goaforward witb the idea that aur future transportation systems muet b. carfully designed ta minimize their impact on aur sensitive world atai levels. At the same time, those mode of transport that, as a wholeare the most damagi«ng, muet* not b. expanded. We muet design lesu harrnful systems and begin aur transition ta, them. Again, I would emphasize that the -varaus modes of traport- ation muet b. looked at at al levels of interaction anc1 inter- relatedness. Only thon can we get a true picture af what system w. should favor. Flexibility should b. another principle or requirement for aur ngeW transpo-rtation ys- .13.to0o =te ehave ben wrong in aur éhort-sighted political decisions, such as the FedealGovernmentfs cutbacks an rail tapoationl. By designing a fleibl transporta- tion system, the needs df the future can b. met without wholesale disruption or continuing envirorinental des- tructive method simplybeae they have eome toe ntrnhed ta change. Our future passenger tans.portation systems muest l flexile and environmentaly healthy in ail their inter-related copaet parts. W. can ensure sch lraefture by ma]dng aur views known ta this -Royal Commission, te, our political representatives in Ottawa and Queen's Park, and by suppor n groups such as Transprt20. .)f yau would like temae your opinions ,known -about aur countrys future passenger transportation systems you cen phone the Royal Commission's 'da--brtief' ..lne at 1-800-4654321 or write ta the Executive Director, Janet R. Smith, Royal Commnisson on National PasenerTansporta- tion, P.O. Box1665 station -"B" ttwCanada K1ï» 6p8. Mae or iesknown. No ans else willdo it for you. Stephen G. Leahy _________~~~.oe~ Noew~~~g