By Pepper Parr
July 21st, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
Trees are technology said a participant at the Town Hall meeting on Climate Change that Oakville North Burlington MP Pam Damoff held last night.
These trees came down on Pearl Street – nothing has gone up to replace them.
That comment raised a couple of eyebrows until Damoff piped up with – “I can buy into that.”
“I had senior who explained to me that she had three trees taken down because they had been infected with the Emerald Ash Bore (EAB). The result was that the shade those elm trees proved on one side of her building meant she needed to buy an air conditioner to keep her home cool.
“That senior was on a fixed income and expenses like this were not a part of the budget she lived within. The additional electricity cost is something else she has to deal with.”
The air conditioner is a technology that senior has to pay for – the trees were keeping her house cool and as far as the senior was concerned that was technology enough for her.
Trees are technology.
Hydro One should give that some thought. They’ve stripped vegetation from their corridors unnecessarily.
And spraying the corridors with “government approved” vegetation killers isn’t benign either. Many products (like lead in gasoline, or Thalidomide) were once “government approved” – until they were found to be health threats.
More people should read this … and then think about it before cutting down the next tree!