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Message-ID: <362C067C.412A@ns.sympatico.ca> Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 20:41:48 -0700 From: John/Karen Pearce <jk.pearce@ns.sympatico.ca> Organization: LLLC/T2000ATL X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.02E-SYMPA (Win95; I; 16bit) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: letters@herald.ns.ca Subject: Federal/Provincial Energy-Environment Conference in Halifax X-URL: http://www.herald.ns.ca/news/letters.html Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 An important federal-provincial conference of energy and environment ministers is being held in Halifax this week. The main focus is reduction of Greenhouse Gas emissions, particularly CO2. Since transportation is the biggest producer of Greenhouse Gases we must place our focus on ways to reduce CO2 production from burning of fossil fuels by the transport sector. It's unfortunate that, as usual in this type of conference, transportation ministers are not involved. Here are some issues that must be addressed if Canada is to achieve its goal of a 6% cut in Greenhouse Gas emissions by 2010: -The number of cars and driver's licences is growing rapidly. Trends are shifting to ownership of gas guzzling vans and sport utility vehicles. These tendencies must be reversed through more efficient vehicles and better public transit. -Our cities and towns are becoming more subject to "urban sprawl" with longer commuter trips to work, children using dedicated buses rather than being able to walk to school, and shopping and leisure trips becoming longer and longer. Our planners must develop more compact urban areas and better transit to offer alternatives to auto commuting. -We continue to expand highways to accommodate more trucks while closing down rail lines. Yet rail freight is 4 to 6 times more energy efficient and pollution free than trucks. This trend also needs reversal especially for heavy freight and long distance trips. The Suzuki Foundation and other environmental groups are right when they say we can't expect education and voluntary action alone to achieve the Kyoto global warming reduction goals. We need action by our leaders in energy conservation, environmental pollution, AND especially in transportation. John Pearce, Transport 2000 Atlantic. Phone 469-3474, Fax 469-3637, e-mail jk.pearce@ns.sympatico.ca
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