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Jan 19, 2006 Dear Charlatan Readers, As we wait for the outcome of the Federal Election, I look around me and see a lot of issues facing the younger people in my community. Whether you are a student living in residence or you live in another part of the city and "commute", your concerns are shared. Many of you call my office seeking help. Freeze our tuition. Don’t shut down ‘our’ O-train. Don’t raise transit costs. What about keeping our planet healthy? How can we improve the pedestrian and cycling safety on Bronson? These are all pressing problems, and with my office staff, we have built a good relationship with Carleton students, RRRA, CUSA, GSA to attack these issues together. The student semester pass, cobbling together the O-Train pilot, the Bronson Safety Audit are just three of the great actions that have resulted from our partnerships. I am going to be writing a column for the Charlatan on a regular basis starting with this issue, and I will be seeking your input on issues of importance to Carleton students to make sure we stay focused on the things that count for students. Thank you very much to all of you who spoke out at City Hall and at Carleton against OC Transit ticket increases. Best,
Jan. 30, 2006 Letter to Charlatan Readers, I’ve been fighting against urban sprawl for 40 years. I began with the Stop Spadina Movement in Toronto in the 1960s and went on to work for the federal Ministry of State for Urban Affairs, the provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs, citizens groups and now as a city politician. After forty years of effort, urban sprawl has achieved dimensions that I would never have thought possible when I started. Toronto has been paved all the way to Hamilton. The l960s strip mall has morphed into the ‘Big Box’ power centres with parking lots that you could land a jet on. These warehouse shopping centres are so vast; people drive from one end to the other. Estate lots now cover entire townships. Four cars in a driveway is not unusual. It’s worth reflecting on why so much effort has achieved so little. I’ve come to believe it rests on three reasons. The first is that in spite of all the books, conferences, newspaper articles, T.V. programs, the worldwide environmental crisis remains obscure to most people. The second reason is the time line. Ten years is a long time, and students, marriages, careers, politicians all come and go. The third reason is that most people believe that there is a magic bullet out there, like President Bush who speaks about the hydrogen fuel cell saving the day. Climate change will somehow be ‘fixed’ by human ingenuity and innate sense of survival. (More to come in next letter.) Clive Doucet
Feb 6, 2006 Letter to Charlatan Readers, In last week’s issue I finished by mentioning how President Bush and many others speak about the hydrogen fuel cell being the magic bullet that will save the day. Unfortunately, the hydrogen cell is not a source of energy. It works like a battery to store energy produced elsewhere, and ethanol takes more energy to produce than it delivers. Nonetheless, the generalized hope that something will come along is not devoid of reason or experience. Peace activists preached to Armageddon during the Cold War. The Cold War has come and gone. The fear mongers were wrong. Then there was the 1970’s oil scare. The end of cheap oil had arrived. What happened? The OPEC cartel crumbled. The oil price crisis of 1971 was just a blip and that’s what people think will happen today with climate change. People’s intelligence and innate sense of survival will win out. This is where I differ from my colleagues. I believe that we are embarked towards a global disaster that will not be fixable at the last minute because by the time it is crystal clear to enough people just how perilous our situation has become, it will be too late. Just as we cannot stop the Bow River Glacier melting, there is nothing we can now do to stop the oceans warming at the rate they are now or lose the great stores of fresh water fish in the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps. This means it is entirely possible ocean temperatures will change enough to flip the Gulf Stream and that Force Five hurricanes will make the Gulf Coast uninhabitable. (To be continued.) Clive Doucet
Feb 27, 2006 Dear Charlatan Readers, One of the biggest disappointments of the 2006 budget was the way the Environment was treated, no pesticide law, no money for air quality monitors, no money for environmental implementation staff. I’m in the process of preparing an environmental agenda for 2007 that I would like to see the new Council take on. Here are some of the initiatives that I think should be part of it. What do you think of them? Write or phone at clive.doucet@Ottawa.ca or 580-2487
I hope you will take the time to provide me with your thoughts on other progressive solutions to move us towards a better today and an affordable tomorrow. Councillor Clive Doucet,
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