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frees rar eee

 

CefiiTon

Planet Earth can only tolerate so much

By Siavash Emamzadeh

of a forest only pertained to its

appearance, but as I have recently
learned, there’s much more to it than
that.

The true grace of a forest lies in a
subtle, initially indiscernible, attribute.
An attribute that upon realization
expands one’s understanding of life,
that by labeling trees as living it simply
means they’re growing. It gives a
human-like definition to their “living”
status. This characteristic is also a
forest’s tendency to absorb harmful
carbon dioxide emissions, which
otherwise would contribute to global
warming. Although that may have
been previously known, what was not
so well known is that tropical forests
absorb a large amount of carbon in the
atmosphere—approximately 18 per
cent.

This percentage may seem small,
but considering that global warming
is a growing problem, every percent is
crucial. And certainly, as I see it, this
trait is the tree’s equivalent of heroism.
The absorption, however, relies on one
condition: that those forests remain

[= to think that the beauty

A ee ear se i ‘
intact. Fires and logging are examples
of forest destruction that release carbon
back into the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, poverty has driven
some residents of tropical regions
to resort to logging. They demolish
forests to make room for pastures
and croplands, which will ultimately
provide them with internationally
tradable products. Not surprisingly,
they also cut down forests to create
space for building homes.

Perhaps the current economic crisis
can serve as something of a remedy for
forest degradation. In a time marked by
conservation, a lot of people throughout

rs

~~ 3 >

  

the world will have to cut back on
their spending. Experiencing a money
shortage ourselves, we can perhaps
summon some sympathy for residents
of tropical regions. It’s true though
that having sympathy for people that
destroy potentially life-saving trees

is contrary, but they, like everyone
else, need to make a living. Of course,
living under recession is nothing like
living a poverty-stricken life, but there
is some likeness. The whole purpose
of identifying with them is to see both
sides of the issue and endeavour for

a reasonable and fair solution. It also
highlights the desperate measures they

have to resort to, to make a living,
while adding more urgency to the
situation.

What’s sure is that the annual
destruction of 13 million hectares
of forest needs to be stopped,
% especially now that global warming
y is worsening. If we lose more forests,
more carbon dioxide will drift into the
» air, paving the way for an excess of
health problems.

Already, initiatives like
J increasing the value of sustainably
produced products and the UN-

   

= REDD (United Nations Collaborative

Programme on Reducing Emissions
from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation in Developing Countries)
initiative are a great start. Although
UN-REDD entails the controversial
practice of carbon trading, it does
serve as a good starting point for
people drawn to the issue due to both
their concern about the poverty and
deforestation of tropical regions.

The world is like a ball of yarn,
capable of giving only so much
through exhaustive use. As the ball
is continually spun, the yarn will
eventually run out.

 

Give smokers their own space to smoke—far, far away

By Natalie Nathanson

alking in Vancouver
should be a liberating and
peaceful experience. The

cherry blossom trees are blossoming,
the coffee shops with their espressos
wafting into the streets, and that clean
crisp Vancouver air I breathe in...
suddenly it’s not too clean... and well,
not that crisp... and it’s not really air...
cough cough... now if I can just get
past this smoker it’d all be perfect. Oh
look... another one... and another...
and another...

I can’t remember the last time I’ve
walked one block in this city without
having to hold my breath due toa
smoker, and I’m getting extremely tired
of it. I’m ready to start wearing a gas
mask wherever I go. :

I know this argument has been
going on for ages, but cigarettes really
should be banned from public use much
like alcohol is. At least with alcohol,
if you’re drinking it in public you’re
not hurting anyone but yourself. With
cigarettes, people (like me) trying
to walk past you have to breathe in
your cancer. You’d think that with the
placement of these new laws such as
smoking within six metres of a doorway
(which no one seems to be listening
to or enforcing) or banning smoking
in a car with anyone under the age of

16 present, the government would go
one step further and ban it in public
altogether. Oh, how I wish they would.

There was talk over the summer
about the possibility of banning
smoking from beaches, because the
butts were seeping chemicals into
the water, causing potential harm to
marine life. That’s nice, but what about
me? I have to breathe in cancerous
second-hand smoke every time I leave
my house; who’s going to protect me
from that? Smokers treat the whole
city as their personal ash tray and
throw their butts with their poisonous
chemicals wherever they wish, which
usually wind up in sewers, which runs
into our water treatment plants and
winds up in our drinking water. Have
people forgotten that this is an act of
littering? Something we’ve all been
taught since kindergarten not to do?
Why is it that there are $2,000 fines for
acts of littering and no one seems to be
handing out tickets for tossing a butt in
the streets that winds up in the sewer
which winds up in the water I’m told I
should be drinking? I’m sorry, if they’re
saying local water supplies are safe,
they better make damn sure there are no
butts seeping into that water if I’m told
to drink it.

I read an article in Metro the other
day, about a report released by the
BC Medical Association (BCMA). It

claimed that almost 400,000 people
within in the province were addicted
to some form of independence, like

gambling, coffee, alcohol or hard drugs.

I kept reading the article, thinking
they’d mention it elsewhere. Smoking?
Where is smoking in this?

When I got home I later did
some research and discovered they’ re
planning on doing a separate report
on tobacco alone, because it’s the #1
killer. It’s the worst addiction of all so
it gets its own little report. The BCMA
is trying to get these addictions seen
as diseases, in order to get “treatment
beds” and detoxification spaces, saying
this will stop congestion at hospitals.
Either way, our tax dollars are paying
for this. People’s addiction to cigarettes
may be providing an incredible amount
of capital for the country, but our tax
dollars are paying to keep people in
hospitals and these soon-to-be detox
facilities because of the diseases they
acquire from their smoking habit.

Why should we, who have chosen to
live a smoke-free life, have to pay for
these people’s treatment? They knew
what they were getting into when they
started.

With the Health Canada warnings
on every pack of cigarettes sold, the
pictures with diseased blackened lungs,
livers and hearts, it’s clear the smokers
as well as the government are aware of

 

the statistics in regards to the harmful
effects of smoke and second-hand
smoke, so why am I still breathing it
in everyday? Like pints in a pub, if
smoking must be done, then smoking
must be done in designated and sealed
indoor areas, like smoking rooms,
where people can bask in the smoke
they so love without bothering those
who care to live a smoke-free life. It
shouldn’t be done in the streets, where
there’s a vast mixture of people who
are disgusted by it and those who are
addicted to it.

I can’t count how many times a
careless smoker has brushed past me
with their cigarette and seared my skin
with the smouldering tip or burned a
hole in my jacket.

I like life, I love it, I love being
alive, and I want to keep it that way
for as long as humanly possible. And
one of the ways to accomplish this is
by leading a smoke-free life. But alas,
that seems all too impossible to do, as
selfish people have other plans for me.