4 - Wednesday, Apzil 18, 1990 - North Shore News

BY ALE means, get out and
do something to celebrate
Earth Day next Sunday!

It is a wonderful educational
opportunity for schools, a real
chance to introduce kids to the
rudiments of eco-activism: plant-
ing trees, bringing packaging-free
lunches, doing posters to raise
consciousness, getting out and
learning about nature and pollu-
tion

It is an equally wonderful op-
portunity for corporations to
display their new-found greenness,
and plenty of them are getting on
the bandwagon, including Delta
Hotels, Air Canada and
McDonald’s Resaurants.

McDonald’s — because of the
record of the parent company
connection with the destruction of
the Amazon rainforests for cat- .
tle-grazing in order to supply those
billions of hamburgers, even
though McDonald’s Canada uses
only Canadian-grown beef — was
rejected as a sponsor, but its new
tray liner, made of recycled paper,
was accepted.

Such is the fine-tuning and
soul-searching involved in modern
eco-fundraising.

Above all, it is a great photo-op
for politicians to snip ribbons
(hopefully biodegradable) and

Informati
on the Proposed GST.

Bos Hunter

make speeches. Enough said about
that.

Earth Day marks the anniver-
sary of the original Earth Day, 20
years ago, when Americans and a
few Canadians got out on the
streets to try to make their fellow
citizens aware that the planet itself
was in peril.

This particular anniversary is be-
ing billed as marking the ‘‘birth’’
of the environmental reovement.

It wasn’t — quite. Rachel Car-
son sparked the whole thing with
her 1962 book, Silent Spring.

Although, if you want to play
scholar, you might point out to
Fairfield Osborn’s 1948 classic,
Our Plundered Planet, as marking
the breakthrough point. Or Paul
Erlich’s 1968 The Population
Bomb. Or perhaps even Vance
Packard’s 1962 popular publica-
tion, The Waste Makers. But let’s
not nit-pick.

Environmentalism hit the
Streets, at any rate, in 1970, at the
very time that an unknown Van-
couver-based group called The
Don’t Make A Wave Committee
was stalking the docks in the rain,
looking for a boat with a captain
crazy enough to take them to Am-
chitka Island, then an American
nuclear test site.

The rest, as they say, is histo-
ry...

T help Canadians under-
stand the features of the
proposed GST% easy to read
information pamphlets have
been prepared and are

available by calling the

toll free

INFO LINE
1800 267-6620

9 am - 5 pm Monday - Friday

Telecommunications device
for the hearing impaired

1800 267-6650

“The GST legislation is currently being considered

by Parliament.

ivi

Canada

Oepanment of Finance

It is perhaps typical, but Ameri-
can environmentalists this time
around have gone out and raised
$4 million from foundations and
the public, while turning down
another $5 million in corporate
sponsorships which they consid-
ered tainted.

Canadians budgeted for

a

ce

charged other students for the
honor of smashing it to pieces with
a sledgehammer. Unfortunately, as
it was being rolled over by the
school rugger team, gas leaked
out, and somebody lit a match.
Fa-BOOM!

The local headline the next day
said, quite fairly: Fiery Pollution
Demonstration.

This time, no one is planning to
trash a car, at least so far as I
know. Which is really too bad,
since there are a helluva lot more
cars now than then. Environmen-
talism has gone straight, however.
It is the price of becoming
mainstream.

And maybe that’s too bad, too.

Certainly, if I were Planet
Earth, I would wonder what all the
celebrating was about.

In 1970, the ozone layer was still

SP zane

Certainly, if I were Planet
Earth, I would wonder what all
the celebrating was about.”’

$600,000, but ended up with only
$150,000 in hand. C’est la vie
Canadienne!

Those with long memories will
recall that an Earth Day
demonstration in Victoria back in
1970 went slightly awry when ac-
tivist Nigel Searle — now the na-
tional president of Earth Day
Canada — decided to put his old
car to death.

He labelled the vehicle an Infer-
nal Combustion Machirie, and

The Questions and

GST ia Answers

Summary About the
GST

Canaki

Did you know?

& The GST is scheduled to replace the
existing hidden Federal Sales Tax on
January 1, 1991.

@ GST Credit will be paid to lower-to
modest-income Canadians.

@ NO GST on basic groceries, prescription
drugs, and medical services.
@ NO GST charged on most health and dental
services including hospital and nursing home
services.
@ NO GST charged on residential rents or
sales of existing houses.
@ 95% of all new home buyers will qualify for
a GST Housing Rebate which will be applied at

time of purchase.

Mirustére des Finances
Canada

Carnal

essentially intact.

The greenhouse effect had not
yet shown any tangible sign of
coming into existence.

The rainforests had not yet
begun to burn.

Lake Chad in Africa had only
begun to shrink to the one-seventh
of its original size that it is today.

Oil spills were relatively rare, as
opposed to being a commonplace
affair. Something like the Exxon
Valdez had been predicted, but not

on for All Cana:

Information
on the
GST Credit

also available:
General Public:

@ Housiny!

@ Seniors

@ Students
Business:

@ Small Business

®@ Convenience Stores
@ Farmers/Fishermen

@ Self Employed Trades

@ Barbers/Hairstylists

@ Used Vehicle Dealers

® Commission Agents
@ Exporters

yet realized.

Astronauts could take pictures
from orbit of a beautiful blue at-
mosphere. Today, it is the color of
a dirty fishbowl.

You could still swim in the Great
Lakes. (Well, most of them.)

Nobody knew then that Cana-
dian children were ingesting 50 per
cent more lead than the maximum
allowable limit.

Three-Mile Island and Cher-
noby! were events that scientists
and politicians alike denied could
ever “‘really’’ happen.

Species were dying out, but not
at the rate of one every 24 hours —
the greatest biological holocaust
since the time of the disappearance
of the dinosaurs.

Quebec sugar maples had not yet
begun to “‘die hack.*’

And acid rain was an expression
nobody had heard.

It can be argued that the last 20
years have been an almost unmiti-
gated ecological disaster, both
from the point of view of un-
checked population growth and the
resulting environmental devasta-
tion.

I mention all this, not because
you don’t know it already, but in
order to clear the decks so that my
column on Earth Day Sunday can
be a genuine celebration.

We all need something to cele-
brate from time to time, and while
the poor planet may be writhing on
a Procrustean Bed of humanity’s
technological making, the last 20
years have also been a revolu-
tionary period in which the seeds
of transformation have not only
been sown, but have begun to bear
fabulous fruit.

Having delivered the bad news,
allow me next Sunday to offer a
toast and a tribute. And — how-
ever briefly — to join the party.
ee ©

ns.

The following information pamphlets are

®@ Real Estate

® Tutors & Instructors

@ Travel Agents

© Professionals

@ Pharmacies/Drug Marts

@ Charities

@ Non-profit
Organizations

@ Service Stations

@ Taxi & Limo Drivers

@ Hotels

@ Restaurants

Canada’s GST.
Information
you should know.

Canad