Miller to complete 100% of public spaces planned for the waterfront by 2010, creating 750 acres of new parks and public spaces

TORONTO - Mayor David Miller today announced his plan to create a revitalized waterfront community for all Torontonians. His priorities include the creation of 750 acres of new public spaces and parks - from Scarborough to Etobicoke - as part of his commitment to complete 100% of all public spaces planned for the waterfront.

The plan, part of Miller's vision for a clean, green, and beautiful city, is a centrepiece of the Mayor's campaign platform, and a continuation of his commitment to reclaim the City's waterfront for the enjoyment of future generations.

"For too long, Toronto's waterfront had been neglected, and that is why one of my priorities as Mayor is to reclaim and revitalize this natural resource," said David Miller while speaking today at an event at the Sheraton Hotel.

Over the past three years, he has worked to reclaim the waterfront, driving its transformation from an industrial wasteland caught in a bitter intergovernmental squabble to a place that all of Toronto will be proud of. "I am proud that as Mayor I have forged secure partnerships with other levels of government to ensure stable long-term funding commitments for Toronto's waterfront," said Miller.

This year alone, $625 million of new projects have started. These include a new soccer stadium, a film studio and media complex, cleaning of the west Don Lands, a multi-sport watercourse in the western beaches, new parks and an innovative HtO park in the central waterfront that is nearing completion.

Clean, green and beautiful waterfront

In a continued commitment to revitalize Toronto's waterfront, Mayor Miller today outlined his priorities for the next four years. He will:

<< - Complete 100% of the parks and public spaces planned for the waterfront. This will create 750 acres of new parks from Scarborough to Etobicoke.

- Construct bike trails and lakefront promenades across the City.

- Accelerate the City's efforts to reduce the amount of pollution that flows into Lake Ontario, making beaches safer and more swimmable for Toronto residents.

- Create vibrant waterfront communities featuring a mix of residential, recreational, and research facilities.

- Clean polluted lands, reduce energy consumption, construct green buildings, and improve air and water quality to ensure the sustainability of waterfront revitalization efforts. >>

A waterfront for people, not planes

Mayor David Miller believes Toronto's waterfront should be for people, not planes. Today, the waterfront faces new threats from an expanded Island Airport.

"The recent actions of the Toronto Port Authority are irresponsible. It is a rogue agency that is not accountable to anyone," said Miller. "Today, I urge the federal government to disband the Port Authority and transfer its responsibilities to the City so that Torontonians have the authority necessary to pursue our vision of a wonderful waterfront." In addition to calling on the federal government to disband the Toronto Port Authority and transfer its responsibilities to the City of Toronto, David Miller committed to continue to fight against the resumption of commercial flights at the Island Airport that put private interests ahead of the public interest in a revitalized waterfront.

Mayor David Miller is running for re-election on November 13, 2006 to build on the strong foundation he has laid to make Toronto safer, stronger, cleaner and greener - and to build a city that leaves no one behind by creating opportunity for all

“The world's top polluting nations were told on Wednesday to prepare for decades of weather turmoil, even if they act now to curb emissions and pursue green energy sources.

Environment and energy ministers meeting in the Mexican city of Monterrey vowed to work faster to control global warming as scientists told them each year wasted in curbing greenhouse gas emissions would cost them dearly. The informal talks did not set emissions-cutting targets, but delegates agreed on the need to expand the global carbon trading market to provide investment for green initiatives.

British Environment Secretary David Miliband said scientists told the meeting that if no action is taken, carbon dioxide emissions will more than double by 2050. … Yet even if countries froze emission levels tomorrow, the world still faces 30 years of floods, heat waves, hurricanes and coastal erosion, the British government's chief scientific advisor David King said. King, who considers global warming a bigger threat than terrorism, said rich nations must help the developing world prepare for a weather shift that could put millions of lives at risk. … ” [Reuters/Factiva]

“… [In attendance at the conference and in an interview with BBC News,] Rick Samans, head of the Davos-based World Economic Forum, said the global effort to tackle the [climate change] problem was beginning 10-15 years late. He said politicians had to act fast and set targets to cut CO2 emissions. … He added that businesses needed much more certainty about emissions targets before committing to investing billions of pounds in clean technology. … He [further] suggested that the delegates were also frustrated by the slow pace of progress, but expressed a degree of optimism that clean technology could be quickly adopted if governments sent out the right signals. …

The conference in Monterrey, organized by the UK government, is the latest round of talks on the climate action plan decided upon at the G8 Gleneagles Summit last year. Ministers from G8 nations have been joined at the event by representatives from the emerging economies of China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. On Tuesday, the ministers were told that the world had to act now to curb climate change, because doing nothing would cost more in the long-term. …” [BBC News Online/Factiva]

Deputy Minister Peter Watson, Alberta Environment

Dan McGillivray, Managing Director of the Centre for Earth and Environmental Technologies, Ontario Centre of Excellence

Jay Benforado, Director of the National Centre for Environmental Innovation, US Environmental Protection Agency

Robert Benson, Director, Sector Strategies Program, Office of Policy, Economics, & Innovation, USEPA

Robert Stephens, Best Practices Network, United Nations Environment Program

Gérald Girouard, Section Head, Technology, Innovation & Industrial Sectors, Environment Canada

Rahumathulla Marikkar, Director, Technology and Environment, Interface (Canada)

Dianne Zimmerman, Senior Manager of Issues Management and Stakeholder Engagement, Suncor Energy Inc.

Allison Morrison, Senior Environmental Coordinator for Corporate Sustainability at BC Hydro

Ken Ogilvie, Executive Director of Pollution Probe

Chris Wolnik, Executive Director, Canadian Centre for Pollution Prevention

Registration is CDN $100. Register early as space is limited

For more information and to register visit www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/mswg

CORNUCOPIA, WISCONSIN: A report released September 27, 2006 by The Cornucopia Institute, the nation's most aggressive organic farming watchdog, accuses Wal-Mart of cheapening the value of the organic label by sourcing products from industrial-scale factory farms and Third World countries, such as China.

Wal-Mart announced earlier this year that they would greatly increase the number of organic products they offered and price them at a target of 10% above the cost for conventional food.

"We have received scores of press inquiries over the past few months asking us if Wal-Mart's organic expansion was ‘good news or bad news’ for the industry,” stated Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for the Wisconsin-based farm policy research group. "My stock answer has been: If Wal-Mart lends their logistical prowess to organic food both farmers and consumers will be big winners by virtue of a more competitive marketplace. However, if Wal-Mart applies their standard business model, and in essence Wal-Marts organics, then everyone will lose."

The Institute's white paper, Wal-Mart Rolls Out Organic Products—Market Expansion or Market Delusion?, makes the argument that Wal-Mart is indeed poised to drive down the price of organic food in the marketplace by inventing a "new" organic—food from corporate agribusiness, factory farms, and cheap imports of questionable quality. "Organic family farmers in this country could see their livelihoods disintegrate the same way so many industrial workers saw their family-supporting wages evaporate as Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers put the screws to manufacturers—forcing a production shift to China and other low-wage countries," Kastel added.

Wal-Mart, already the nation's largest organic milk retailer, partnering with the giant milk processor Dean Foods (Horizon Organic), recently introduced their own private-label organic milk packaged by Aurora Organic Dairy. Aurora, based in Boulder, Colorado, has faced a maelstrom of organic industry criticism and negative press for operating a number of industrial-scale dairies with thousands of cows confined in feedlot-like conditions. They are also the subject of two current USDA investigations into their organic management practices.

"If there was any previous doubt as to their intentions, partnering with Dean/Horizon and Aurora should leave no question in anyone's mind as to how Wal-Mart is approaching its organic initiative," proclaimed Steve Sprinkel long-time industry observer and columnist for the nation's leading sustainable agricultural journal, Acres USA. Large percentages of milk from Horizon and Aurora come from factory farms, milking as many as 10,000 cows, allegedly without the required access to pasture. The two companies have also been accused of bringing nonorganic cows onto their farms. "Because of the intense media scrutiny there is no doubt that Wal-Mart entered into these relationships in blatant disregard to the ethical expectations of the consumers who have helped build organics into a lucrative $16 billion industry," Sprinkel added.

This April, The Cornucopia Institute released a rating of the nation's approximately 70 organic namebrand and private-label organic dairy products (www.cornucopia.org). Although almost 90% received a very high rating, Horizon and Aurora refused to participate in the study and received the Institute's lowest score. And in a subsequent poll of their over 800,000 members, the Organic Consumers Association moved to boycott Horizon and Aurora dairy products. "It's hard to believe that at this time Wal-Mart would embrace these products," said OCA director Ronnie Cummins.

In addition to the report’s documentation of the Wal-Mart/factory-farm connection, the study also highlighted the company’s decision to lower the per unit cost basis on organic products by collaborating with its long-time trading partner China.

"Even if it were not for many serious concerns about the propriety of the certification process in China—and the fact that the USDA has provided little if any regulatory oversight there—food shipped around the world, burning fossil fuels and undercutting our domestic farmers, does not meet the consumer's traditional definition of what is truly organic," Kastel stated.

While Wal-Mart sources Chinese organic products, the industry's largest organic and natural foods retailer, Whole Foods Market, announced plans this summer to greatly expand their offerings of locally grown produce in deference to organic consumer sentiments.

"Between Whole Foods and hundreds of the nation's cooperatively owned natural foods groceries, we are certainly set up for a clash of the titans,” said Cummins. "Will consumers choose cheap industrial food, be it from factory farms or questionable Third World imports, or will they continue to support ethical processors and family farmers?"

Wal-Mart also depends on Natural Selection Foods, Earthbound Farms, a giant industrial enterprise farming tens of thousands of acres in California, Arizona, Mexico and Chile as their prime vendor for organic vegetables.

"I don't think (consumers) have any idea just how industrialized it's becoming (mainstream organics)," said journalism professor and author Michael Pollan in a recent interview with the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Pollan’s book, “The Omnivore's Dilemma” has been a national bestseller. "There are some real downsides to organic farming scaling up to this extent," Pollan added during the interview. He and others worry that the expansion of "Big Organic" will lower food quality, weaken standards and hurt small family farms.

This month The Cornucopia Institute sent a letter to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott suggesting that Wal-Mart’s approach to organics would likely undermine the corporation’s campaigns to attract upscale shoppers to their stores and to help cleanse the reputation of world's largest retailer in terms of the widespread criticism that it has endured due to its labor and environmental practices.

"We are afraid that you are grossly miscalculating your move into organics and underestimating the knowledge and commitment of the organic consumer. Those buying organic food are comfortable paying the historic premiums because they think that part of their purchase dollar supports a different kind of environmental, animal husbandry, and economic justice ethic," the letter from Cornucopia read in part.

The letter also cited an example of Wal-Mart selling mislabeled conventional yogurt as organic. In addition, the Institute’s report red-flagged the retailer selling organic baby formula made with both questionable synthetic ingredients and processing materials. The report also suggests that Wal-Mart might lack the qualifications or commitment to oversee what promises to be one of the nation's largest organic manufacturing, distribution, and retail networks.

“Wal-Mart’s move into organics is worrisome to investors who realize that the credibility of organic label, and the sustainability of organic farming, is of greater significance to their returns than the mere branding of the term ‘organic,’” said Daniel Stranahan, Investment Committee Chair of the Toledo-based The Needmor Fund. “If we undermine the legitimacy of organic label then we also undermine the investor and consumer confidence that have brought historic premiums to organic products.”

The options studied in the plan include: careful conservation and demand management; making full use of existing, sustainable supply from groundwater sources within the city; development of additional groundwater sources outside the city in consultation with the County and Townships; careful examination of local surface water alternatives; and cooperative development of a Great Lakes pipeline with other municipalities. PET Committee members agreed that staff would have to report back with more information prior to any consideration of a Great Lakes Pipeline option.

Future Council decisions related to the Water Supply Master Plan will be affected by the City’s Growth Management Study, which will explore options and capacity for sustainable growth and provide for community input. The Growth Management Study will identify and analyze the factors that will shape Guelph’s future growth and will recommend appropriate municipal initiatives accordingly.

Public consultation was a critical component of the Water Supply Master Plan. Input from the WSMP Public Advisory Committee resulted in extensive feedback from business, industry, agriculture, development and community stakeholders. Public meetings, at which members of the general public participated and gave input, were well-attended and generated substantial feedback.

TORONTO- New satellite images taken from space show Ontario is allowing among the largest clearcuts in the world to take place in caribou habitat in Ontario's Boreal Forest. Meanwhile, the provincial government continues to publicly declare Ontario a "world leader" in forestry practices.

Satellite images obtained from the United States Geological Survey show five clearcuts all larger than 260 ha within the Trout Lake Forest of Northwest Ontario. The region - which is critical caribou habitat - was logged and roaded as late as May 23, 2006.

Meanwhile, Ontario Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay has denied the occurrence of large-scale logging in the province. One month after the May 23, 2006 clearcut was made in Trout Lake, he told the Toronto Sun, "We're making sure that we're a world leader in forestry practices. We keep our cuts quite small nowadays."

"These images of recent clearcuts are proof the Ontario government has been lying to the public by saying it keeps its clearcuts small," said Leah Henderson, Boreal Forest Campaigner at ForestEthics. "The truth is much of Ontario's Boreal forest is slated to be clearcut logged or mined in the next few years - and without the immediate protection of critical caribou range, the species is in for a fight for survival."

According to a 2004 Yale University report entitled Global Environmental Forest Policies, in Russia, the only other country other than Canada with large areas of intact Boreal Forest, the official maximum size for industrial clearcuts is 50 hectares (ha). In Ontario, official clearcut size restriction is five times greater at 260 ha, while 20 per cent of the forest cover is allowed unlimited size clearcuts, some as large as 750 ha.

British Columbia restricts its clearcuts to 50 hectares and Quebec law requires they be no larger than 100 ha.

To view the satellite images, please visit www.forestethics.org/borealclearcuts

But the good news, many experts say, is that the conflict between Lagash and Umma over irrigation rights in what is now Iraq was the last time two states went to war over water.

Down the centuries since then, international rivals sharing waters such as the Jordan River, the Nile, the Ganges or the Parana have generally favoured cooperation over conflict.

So if history can be trusted, things may stay that way.

"The simple explanation is that water is simply too important to fight over," said Aaron Wolf, a professor at Oregon State University. "Nations often go to the brink of war over water and then resolve their differences."

Since the war between Lagash and Umma, recorded on a stone carving showing vultures flying off with the heads of defeated Umma warriors, no wars have been fought and 3,600 international water treaties have been signed, he said.

Yet politicians regularly warn that water shortages caused by surging populations and climate change could trigger conflicts this century in a world where a billion people in developing countries lack access to clean drinking water.

"Fierce competition for fresh water may well become a source of conflict and wars in the future," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in 2001. The English word "rival" even comes from the Latin "rivalis" meaning "someone sharing a river".

Other experts say international "water wars" are unlikely.

"I don't really expect wars over water because ... the benefits of collaboration are so great," said Frank Rijsberman, head of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

And still others say water might be one factor in future conflicts. Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), says this is particularly true in border regions where countries share rivers.

"I am not somebody who believes that our third world war will be over water, but I think the potential for conflict will grow as we are faced with water scarcity," he told Reuters.

SCARCITY WORSENS?

Rijsberman led a U.N.-backed report in August that said one in three people lives in a region where water is scarce and that demand could almost double by 2050 -- led by farming which absorbs 74 percent of all freshwater used by humans.

Planting extra crops to produce biofuels and global warming -- which could bring more erosion, droughts and floods -- could add new pressures, the report said. But it added that there was enough water to go around, with better planning.

"If there is a war between two countries the 15th reason could be water but the first 14 reasons will have absolutely nothing to do with water," said Asit Biswas, head of the Third World Center for Water Management in Mexico City.

"But if I want to get in the media the easiest thing is to say that a water war is about to break out in the Middle East," he said. "The last war over water was thousands of years ago."

A problem, he said, was that water was often viewed as a commodity like oil, which cannot be re-used. Water in the Colorado River, for instance, can get used seven times for hydropower, drinking water or irrigation.

The academics' view is not shared everywhere.

"If we don't address the water issue in the Middle East in a coherent way there will be a war. There's scarcity and when it comes to water it's a matter of life," said Shadad Attilik, a Palestinian who conducts water negotiations with Israel.

He said vital aquifers in the Gaza Strip were being polluted and causing health problems. "If you see a Palestinian with yellow teeth you know he comes from Gaza," he said.

Experts note that violence over water often breaks out within countries -- over rivers, lakes, oases or wells.

In Kenya, dozens of people died early this year in fighting between nomadic tribes over scant water and grazing rights. Tamil Tiger rebels were accused of shutting off sluices in Sri Lanka in August in their separatist war with government forces.

Steiner said countries most vulnerable to water scarcity included already conflict-prone Chad, Sudan and Somalia, as well as Ethiopia, parts of Pakistan, south India and China.

"We must work very fast in the next few decades to ensure that nations have a shared approach to deal with water scarcity," he said, calling this a priority for UNEP.

HOW WOULD YOU WIN?

In the five decades to 1999, Wolf's research (http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu/) indicates there have been no wars and just 37 military acts over water between states -- 30 of them involving Israel and its neighbours.

Among signs of cooperation, Israel and Jordan held secret talks about managing the Jordan River from the 1950s, even when they were technically at war. The Indus River commission kept going despite wars between India and Pakistan.

Among military acts, Israel in the 1960s destroyed Syrian construction on the headwaters of the Jordan River which was part of a project to divert waters for an "all-Arab" water plan.

But those predicting future "water wars" should also consider another problem: how do you secure victory?

"If you conquer territory to gain control over a river you still have to provide water to people living there," said Anders Jaegerskog of the Stockholm International Water Institute. "It's very difficult to imagine how you win a water war."
(Additional reporting by Laura MacInnis in Geneva)

In addition, a technical working group of the U.N. Environment Program is considering whether to recommend a moratorium on all field testing and commercialization of gene-spliced trees. That would be a devastating blow to efforts to preserve biodiversity and to prevent deforestation worldwide.

The United Nation's periodic warnings of dire, impending shortages of water belie its actions, which not only are harmful to health and exacerbate water shortages, but also make a mockery of the organization's overblown Millennium Development Goals. The most ambitious objective, "to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger" by 2015, certainly cannot be accomplished without innovative technology -- which, in turn, cannot be developed in the face of bans and excessive regulatory barriers.

The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization calls on one hand for greater allocation of resources to agriculture, and then makes those resources drastically less cost-effective by gratuitous, unscientific over-regulation of the new biotechnology.

The secretary-general of the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization announces that "integrated water-resources management is the key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals of securing access to safe water, sanitation and environmental protection," while a veritable alphabet soup of other U.N. agencies are making virtually impossible the development of gene-spliced plants that can grow with low-quality water or under drought conditions.

The regulation of gene-splicing (among other critical technologies and products) is a growth industry at the United Nations, one that regularly defies scientific consensus and common sense. The result is vastly inflated research and development costs, less innovation and diminished exploitation of superior techniques and products -- especially in poorer countries, which need them desperately, as the most recent U.N. report makes clear.

Journalist Claudia Rosett has questioned "whether in this age of fascist movements, terror tactics and weapons of mass murder, we can afford the indulgence of coddling as our leading global institution this sorry excuse for what was meant to be an honest forum for free and peace-loving nations." We cannot.

©2006 San Francisco Chronicle

Maple Leaf Day is the last Wednesday in September, during National Forest Week – promoting tree planting across the country. The celebrations and ceremonies including; tree dedications, plantings, educational workshops, and seminars will take place in 30 communities across Canada. Tree Canada coordinates these events with the help of Home Hardware who is the major sponsor of the day. For more information on Maple Leaf Day or becoming carbon neutral please contact Tree Canada 613.567.5545 or visit their website at: http://www.tcf-fca.ca

Liberals looking through coloured glasses at bottle return scheme through beer store

TORONTO - Progressive Conservative Party Leader John Tory today repeated his call for a bottle return system at the LCBO and dismissed Dalton McGuinty's last minute plan as poorly thought through.

"Dalton McGuinty's first recycling initiative in three years is fit for the garbage bin," said Tory. "After doing nothing about Ontario's waste management challenges for the past three years, the McGuinty Liberal plan to send wine bottles to The Beer Store is a faulty scheme that's been rushed out the door."

Dalton McGuinty made the rushed Sunday announcement earlier today and was unable to answer simple questions about the cost of the program and if the LCBO would continue to contribute to the Blue Box program. Tory has been calling for a bottle return system for the LCBO ever since he ran for Toronto mayor in 2003.

"This is a deathbed repentance because of the impending Michigan garbage crisis - a problem Dalton McGuinty's lack of leadership has created. The McGuinty Liberals have done nothing to keep their promise of increasing waste diversion to 60 percent and we've seen no progress reports," said Tory.

"Not everyone uses The Beer Store and this will inconvenience thousands of Ontarians," said Tory. "There's no reason why bottles shouldn't be dealt with where they're sold - at the LCBO. The McGuinty Liberal policy lets the Ontario-owned LCBO completely off the hook for any responsibility to Ontario's environment."

Tory added: "It's time the McGuinty Liberals started dealing with Ontario's waste management challenges. We need a comprehensive plan which includes measures to ensure more accountability for packaging, better diversion plans for other containers and real action to help apartment and condo dwellers to recycle, among other things."

New Container Return Program Means Cleaner Environment, Savings For Municipalities

BRAMPTON - Consumers will soon be able to return wine and spirit containers for a refund, which will mean less waste going to landfills and lower recycling costs for municipalities, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced September 10.

"Ontarians have shown a tremendous dedication to the Blue Box program," said Premier McGuinty. "This new container return program is an important step forward in our commitment to work with Ontarians and our partners in government and industry to build clean, healthy, vibrant communities across the province."

In February 2007, Ontario consumers will begin paying a deposit when they purchase wine and spirits. They can then return empty wine and spirit containers to The Beer Store for a full refund. The Beer Store already operates one of the most successful container return programs in the world. This program will help divert about 25,000 to 30,000 additional tons of glass from landfills. That's equivalent to about 80 million bottles The new container return program will also free up space in Blue Boxes, giving municipal governments the opportunity to expand recycling programs.

"On the 25th anniversary of the Blue Box, we're pleased to be moving forward with this important new environmental initiative," said Laurel Broten, Minister of the Environment. "We know Ontarians want to contribute to a clean, healthy environment and this is a great way for them to do that." "LCBO deposit return makes good sense environmentally and economically," said Doug Reycraft, President of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. "This initiative will enhance environmental protection in Ontario and improve the efficiency of the Blue Box program."

"The Recycling Council of Ontario applauds Premier McGuinty for demonstrating leadership, especially at this time when we need to increase waste diversion and decrease materials sent to landfill," said Joanne St. Godard, Executive Director of the Recycling Council of Ontario.

"Deposit-return systems have proven their worth when it comes to maximizing the reuse and recycling of bottles. The Recycling Council of Ontario believes the proposed deposit-return system is a good step towards extended producer responsibility in this province."

Introducing a new container return program is just one way the McGuinty government is working on the side of Ontario families who want a cleaner environment and strong, vibrant communities.

Other initiatives include: <<

- Creating Ontario's Greenbelt, which protects 1.8 million acres of greenspace for families to enjoy for years to come
- Closing down the coal-fired Lakeview Generating Station - the
equivalent of removing 500,000 cars from our roads
- Bringing forward environmental penalties legislation to make polluters pay for spills. >>

"Finding ways to reduce waste is one of the most important issues facing municipalities across Ontario," said Premier McGuinty. "We're going to continue to work with our municipal partners to boost waste diversion efforts so Ontario families can enjoy living in healthy communities for generations to come."

TORONTO - The Provincial Government's proposal to take LCBO wine and spirit bottles out of the municipal "blue box" program and put them on deposit, is jeopardizing a major municipal-industry joint venture that was about to create new glass processing capacity for up to 80,000 tonnes of glass collected in municipal recycling programs in and around the GTA.

An industry organization, CSR, that extensively monitors the operations of the municipal residential blue box system, said today the joint venture, which has been in the works for two years will be lost given the uncertainty created by this sudden announcement and because municipalities will not now be able to commit to providing the amount of glass that is needed.

In the joint venture, Unical of Montreal was about to sign a contract to secure land in the GTA to build the glass processing facility when the government made its announcement. When fully operational in 2007, it was expected to take more than 50,000 tonnes of glass from municipal blue box programs in southern Ontario to create high value construction products and to provide much needed competition in the glass recycling market. Unical has been advised not to proceed with its investment because of the potential negative impact of the government's plan on blue box glass.

The municipal partners involved in this arrangement-Toronto, Durham, York, Peel as well as Hamilton and Guelph-all had agreements from their councils to proceed and to commit glass recovered through their blue box programs.

"The benefits of this new facility would be an alternative market for glass food and beverage jars and bottles coming out of the blue box and greater market competition," said CSR's President, Damian Bassett. A second venture with a company called Poraver of Barrie is creating a new, high value, annual market for an additional 30,000 tonnes of blue box glass from Ontario municipalities. It is building an innovative new facility to manufacture light weight, industrial ceiling tiles with glass from the blue box system.

Bassett noted that securing additional stable, higher value markets for municipalities for their blue box glass would lead to reduced municipal program costs. These investments are now in question.

Wars have been fought over politics, economics, territory, ethnic origin, race, religion and national pride. We may soon have to add a new reason: water, which is in increasingly short supply -- and sought after -- worldwide.

More than a third of the world's population lives in regions where water is scarce, and unless we take radical action immediately, in 50 years half will be living with shortages, depleted fisheries and polluted coastlines and groundwater. This could lead to violent confrontations over water sources, according to a study announced last month, a study sponsored by several international groups, including two United Nations organizations.

Waste and inadequate management are the main culprits behind growing water shortages, particularly in poverty-ridden regions, and the study proposes ways to reduce by half the projected water need to grow food in rain-fed and irrigated areas for an additional 2 billion to 3 billion people.

But the proposals amount to no more than vague, sweeping, pie-in-the-sky remedies typical of U.N. agencies -- "reform the state to improve the governance of water," and "deal with tradeoffs and difficult choices," for example. Certainly, they provide no roadmap for how to get from here to there. And, not surprisingly, the report ignores the fact U.N. agencies have made workable solutions more elusive.

Conspicuously absent is any mention of the need for new, gene-spliced crop varieties, thought by agricultural scientists to be critical to meeting future water shortages. Irrigation for agriculture accounts for roughly 70 percent of the world's fresh water consumption -- even more in areas of intensive farming and arid or semi-arid conditions. So introducing plants that grow with less water could free much of that essential resource for other uses. Especially during drought conditions -- which plague much of Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Australia and the United States -- even a small percentage reduction in water used for irrigation could result in huge benefits, both economic and humanitarian.

However, during the past decade, various U.N. agencies, including the two that sponsored the current report on water usage -- the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) -- have created major regulatory obstacles to using gene-splicing, sometimes called genetic modification or GM.

Gene-splicing offers plant breeders the tools to make old crop plants do spectacular new things. In the United States and at least 17 other countries, farmers use gene-spliced crop varieties to produce higher yields, with lower inputs and reduced environmental impact. Plant biologists have identified genes that regulate water utilization that can be transferred into important crop plants. These new varieties can grow with smaller amounts or lower-quality water, such as water recycled or containing large amounts of natural mineral salts.

Where water is unavailable for irrigation, the development of crop varieties able to grow under conditions of low moisture or temporary drought could both boost yields and lengthen the time that farmland is productive.

Aside from new varieties requiring less water, pest- and disease-resistant gene-spliced crop varieties also make water use more efficient indirectly. Because much of the loss to insects and diseases occurs after the plants are fully grown -- that is, after most of the water required to grow a crop has already been applied -- using gene-spliced varieties with lower post-harvest losses in yield means the farming (and irrigation) of fewer plants can produce the same amount of food. We get more crop for the drop.

But research is hampered by resistance from activists and discouraged by governmental overregulation -- including by the U.N. agency that sets international food standards, and by onerous, unscientific regulation of field trials under the CBD. In addition, a technical working group of the U.N. Environment Program is considering whether to recommend a moratorium on all field testing and commercialization of gene-spliced trees. That would be a devastating blow to efforts to preserve biodiversity and to prevent deforestation worldwide.

The U.N.'s periodic warnings of dire, impending shortages of water belie its actions, that are not only harmful to health and exacerbate water shortages but also make a mockery of the organization's own overblown Millennium Development Goals. The most ambitious objective, "to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger" by 2015, certainly cannot be accomplished without innovative technology -- which, in turn, cannot be developed in the face of bans and excessive regulatory barriers.

The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization calls for greater allocation of resources to agriculture, and then makes those resources drastically less cost-effective by gratuitous, unscientific overregulation of the new biotechnology.

The secretary-general of the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization announces that "integrated water-resources management is the key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals of securing access to safe water, sanitation and environmental protection," while a veritable alphabet soup of other U.N. agencies are making virtually impossible the development of gene-spliced plants that can grow with low-quality water or under drought conditions.

The regulation of gene-splicing (among other critical technologies and products) is a growth industry at the U.N., one that regularly defies scientific consensus and common sense. The result is vastly inflated research and development costs, less innovation, and diminished exploitation of superior techniques and products -- especially in poorer countries, which need them desperately, as the most recent U.N. report makes clear.

Journalist Claudia Rosett has asked "whether in this age of fascist movements, terror tactics, and weapons of mass murder, we can afford the indulgence of coddling as our leading global institution this sorry excuse for what was meant to be an honest forum for free and peace-loving nations." We cannot. Henry I. Miller, a physician and fellow at the Hoover Institution, headed the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Biotechnology, 1989-93. Barron's selected his most recent book, "The Frankenfood Myth," one of the 25 Best Books of 2004.

Copyright 2006 The Washington Times

-- Deloitte survey finds Canadian companies recognize the issue, but have not made action a top priority --

Toronto — Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions management remains on the back burner for more than half of emitting Canadian companies, according to a recent Deloitte survey, the GHG Emissions Management Survey 2006.

The survey of 80 Canadian respondents shows that 50% of companies do not include GHG emission management in their overall risk management policy or strategy, despite 80% ranking GHG emissions management as an issue of moderate to critical importance.

Rather than taking a total company approach to emissions management, primary responsibility continues to rest with most organizations’ head of environment or sustainability, with only 53% having board of directors involvement.

“To date, most Canadian companies have taken the path of least resistance when it comes to GHG emissions management,” says Valerie Chort, partner and national leader of Deloitte’s Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability group. “The survey results suggest many companies are not considering all of the risk factors associated with GHG emissions management.

Mitigation and adaptation strategies go beyond technical considerations and include, for example, environmental, emissions markets, and organizational risk factors. Companies need an integrated approach that includes internal mitigation options, external trading options, and adaptation requirements.”

Those companies that are taking actions are doing so to:

· Establish policy leadership (58%).
· Manage enterprise risks (37%)
· Increase energy efficie