6 - Friday, March 20, 1992 — North Shore News Guardians with & i teeth vital to | HO000 BOY. ONE HUBCAP OFF... NO FRONT LICENCE ett B iT _NOURE IN REAL TROVBLE GUYS. \ = = ~~ iit NEWS VIEWPOINT Environmental salvation in the notion that businesses in the business of offering planet-friendly advice and products will save us from ourselves. A foray across the B.C, Place stadium floor at this week’s Globe °92 international environmental conference and trade fair showed that much energy in the green arena is being dedicated to cleaning up the mess we've made and continue to make. The pessimist may be led to the conclusion that for some the active principle of the much-ballyhooed concept of “sustainable development’? is in fact the Tice IS false comfort to be had maintenance of a continued pace of devel- opment. In recent comments B.C. Environment Minister John Cashore touched on the true path to environmental salvation. Individually we must critically address our own patterns of consumption. On a larger scale we must recognize shared responsibility, a sense of intercon- nected global stewardship. An expectation that we can continue as we are now and get by somehow with a bigger broom is delusion. We must learn to walk lightly through this world. LETTER OF THE DAY ICBC does not give anything away Dear Editor: level, he would have discovered save the planet “*THE SOLDIER who’s doing nothing is doing wrong’’ was a saying in the old German army. It points up the one good thing about Globe ’92 — this week’s three-ring en- vironmental circus in Vancouver. The B.C. Place trade fair with 450 environmental exhibitors from 15 countries shows the industri- alized world is now at least doing SOMETHING. Likewise the global conference (450 speakers and 3,000 delegates) on ‘‘sus- tainable development’ and the family-oriented Enviro-Expo, both at the Trade & Convention Centre. Nissan’s electric car, which could be in production within five years, sets the tone — along with scores of other environmentally friendly products and services. Cleaning up the developed world’s act has also become big and lucrative business, grossing some $150 billion a year in North America and growing at a phe- nomenal speed. But all the blue boxes. biodegradables and eco-smart toys still don’t answer the Doomsday question: Can an environment- conscious 23% cf the earth’s in- habitants save the day on their own? Since the worst dangers, in- cluding global warming and ozone depletion, threaten the entire planet, the answer has to be ‘‘no’’ -— given that the other 77% of humanity living in the deprived and backward Third World have a vasily different agenda. For masses of the latter the top priority is simply survival. If pro- ducing enough food means destroying rain forests to make way for high-tech agriculture with herbicides and pesticides, so be it. Alter that, other western living standards beckon, including sewerage, refrigerators, cars, cheap energy, disposable products and consumer goods of every kind. Many (as we now know) with costs to the environment beyond the means of fledgling Third World industries to avoid — even if they wanted to — as they struggle to catch up. Why, they ask, should WE now go without the goodies YOU en- * joyed during the 200 years you frame equipment. As an owner of a collision repair shop and a concerned con- sumer (I too pay ICBC premiums), I was surprised that your paper printed a column (Doug Collins, March 4) where not even the slightest semblance of research was made into the colli- sion industry. If Mr. Collins had made an en- guiry .on the most preliminary Publisher Associate Editor Comptroller Peter Speck Managing Editor . .. Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright Advertising Director .. Linda Stewart Doug Foot that the standard labor rate is $47.40 for body work and the $63 rate that he quoted is for paint hours only (which includes the paint material). Further, Mr. Collins should re- alize that an estimate is just that. No estimator has x-ray vision. Hidden damage often cannot be discovered until the vehicle is disassembled and mounted on Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 North Shora News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distiibuted 19 every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Distribution Subscriptions Fax 985-3; Administration 985-2131 ICBC, by all means, does not give anything away. If Mr. Collins believes that ICBC is too friendly with the body shops, then I invite him to spend some time in my shop and see how stingy ICBC is with the policyholders’ money. Norbert Tietze, owner Coache Collision Ltd. North Vancouver 986-1337 986-1337 3227 § North Shore managed MEMBER spent polluting? Numerically, meanwhile, it will only get worse. By the year 2025 Third World’s share of the human race is pro- jected to reach 84%, up from to- | day’s 77%. To keep Mother Earth livable, - SOMEBODY will have to crack the environmental whip over them - and ail the rest of us. The only possible solution, of course, is for the United Nations to add environmental policing to and hang on. Noel Wright aot, ™ HITHER AND YON its present peace mandate, with 23 the teeth needed to enforce it. And sooner rather than later. If Yugoslavia rates a 14,000 peacekeeping force, then aggres- sion by any country against the planetary eco-system should be similarly disciplined — by whatever force of international eco-cops it takes. That’s the missing item in the Globe'92 agenda. Yet ultimately, anything less merely nibbles at the Doomsday scenario. : eaee DATELINES: Seeking new fol- lowers of Sir Francis Drake's favorite sport, West Van Lawn Bowling Club is putting of a= * display tomorrow, March 21, in the North Mall, Park Royal in support of its current membership drive. For info on dues, etc., cali-.” Ernie, 922-2872, or Frances, ‘ 926-7703 ... Love both animals *.--.. : and bargains? Then try tomor-: - . row’s (March 21) Variety Sale from 10a.m. to 1 p.m. at West - Van Rec Centre with all the pro- -: ceeds to Pets Ltd. ... Hendry Hall theatre, 815- 11th St., comes — - alive again this evening as North Van Community Players stage their production of ‘‘Amadeus,”’ running until April 4 with curtain - at 8 p.m. For tickets call 983-2633 «. ... And just for this one day, - March 20, forgive and forget — with Prime Minister Brian woo Mulroney a happy 53rd birthday! eee : WRIGHT OR WRONG: When you reach the end of your rope, the safest thing to do is tie a kno! phew Photo subm SO FAR, so good — but much more is needed to keep Mother Earth healthy... Nissan's futuristic electric vehicle is on display - today through Sunday at Enviro-Expo in the Vancouver Trade : and Convention Centre. : a Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rates available on request. 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