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22 - Friday, June 12, 1992 —- North Shore News

ENVIRONMENT

GVRD forum a breath of fresh air

WHILE ENVIRONMENTALISTS like to speak of ‘‘the changes that come about in the interconnected web of creation,’’ some topics — as we can see from the Earth Summit in Brazil — seem to result in divisiveness rather than interconnection.

The Greater Vancouver Regional District’s (GVRD’s) Clean Air Day forum, however, provided a breath of fresh air from the heated debates that often arise when industrialists, en- vironmentalists and_ politicians gather to discuss a subject.

The June 3 forum, held on the region’s first ‘‘Clean Air Day,’’ was a public opportunity to read and discuss the GVRD’s draft Air Quality Management Plan.

The GVRD aims to decrease air emissions within the region by 50% by the year 2000, through alternative transportation schemes and reduced contributions from commercial and industrial sources, gasoline marketing, thermal power generation and household pro- ducts such as paints, adhesives, hairspray and cleaners.

There seemed to be a widespread understanding at the forum that clean air is not a prob- Iem that we can discuss while maintaining the roles of “‘businessperson,”’ ‘‘environmen- talist,’’ ‘‘politician,'’ etc.

That’s because it’s a subject we can only tackle as individuals, since it’s going to be individuals — not big business — who make the difference by changing their transportation habits.

In the discussion group I at- tended, the pony tails and suits were the only way to tell the ‘‘en- vironmentalists’’ from the “businessmen,’’ because otherwise they were speaking the same lan- guage.

Just about everyone in the room was struggling with ways that they and others could reduce air emis- sions by decreasing their automobile usage.

While autos aren’t the only source of air pollution in the region, of course, they are by far

Peggy Trendell-Whittaker

ECOINFO

the largest source. Cars and trucks account for more than 500,000 of the 600,000 tonnes of primary air pollutants emitted in the region annually.

And cars certainly put a dent in one’s pocketbook: a woman heading up a non-profit vanpool- ing organization has researched the total cost of keeping an average car on the road for com- muting purposes and found that it came to over $500 per month.

By comparison, my transporta- tion costs for Environment Week were kept under $10 as I bused, worked from home, and kept er- rands to a minimum.

Clean air is a goal to be pur- sued for its own sake, of course — my boyfriend, who just return- ed from business in Taiwan, came back with an environmentally in- duced rash and stories of eight lanes of continual, unremitting rush hour traffic.

But at the forum there was also excitement over the lifestyle

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pursuit of a minimal-pollution environment. Participants spoke with en-

thusiasm about their experiences telecommuting from home, an op- tion being offered by more and more forward-thinking employers.

Cyclists spoke of how they now loot forward to their daily com- mute to work, unlike their auto days when all they could antici- pate was idling in traffic line-ups.

Many spoke longingly of future communities that would be designed with the needs of people, not cars, foremost, featuring secure, landscaped walkways that would allow people to have access to most of their necessities by foot, bike or shuttle transit.

For many of you who have been wondering how I’ve been do- ing without my car, which is now permanently parked, I’ve been do- ing fine and look forward to tell- ing you about my fumes-to-foot transition in an upcoming column.

In the meantime, what else can we do to keep the air clean?

The GVRD asked elementary schoc! students for their advice, and their informative and highly decorative responses were posted around the Clean Air Forum.

Here are some of my favorites: @ Don’t throw rifles in the water — it might stab a fish. @ Don’t throw your toys around when your mom buys them. @ I won’t burn used car tires at home. @If you need to smoke, you swallow the fumes. @ Make the streets rivers like in Venice and use boats. @ You should try to thiak of

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@ Don’t use drive-thrus so you make less carbon monoxide.

@ Clean up your room to make it nol messy.

@ Make sure you don’t drag your feet when you’re walking in the dust and plees (sic) make sure you do not do it again.

Of all these helpful and humor- ous tips, perhaps we can learn most from the last — ‘‘don’t drag | your feet.”” We don’t have time to - drag our feet in dealing with the important issue of air quality in our region.

To find out more about the subject and ways you can help, call the GVRD’s Communications Department at 432-6339 and re- quest a cory of their ‘‘Let’s Clear the Air’? brochure or their air quality management plan discus- sion paper.

You can register your ideas and opir.ons on air quality by calling 436-6750.

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