Cornwall letter to the editor, June 20, 2024

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Responsibility

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Our municipal solid waste continues to be a problem – it is not, however, produced by the public.

Most people have responded well to household waste recycling. This, however, is only one step in combating the challenge created by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – much of which comes from our trash.

As a society, we have learned to divert so much from our waste, but the remaining garbage is not treated properly. It is known that garbage dumped in pits in the ground, as the city of Cornwall (and every other municipality in the region) does, generates uncontrolled methane gas. It is 21 times worse than carbon dioxide, the other dangerous greenhouse gas.

Then there’s the effluent, the liquid that comes from the rotting garbage, which seeps out and sometimes poisons the aquifers below.

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Methane, the greenhouse gas generated in Cornwall’s landfill, is a major concern. Why does it matter? Because we don’t have much time left to get serious about the impact of greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change is upon us and is responsible for the fires that are destroying our forests. Wildfires have caused death and destruction across the country, scorching approximately 71,000 square miles of land. Those who have experienced the fires describe them as “burning the trees like an evil monster”.

We just can’t keep doing the same old, same old. Since the beginning of time, when communities were first formed, trash has been thrown over the wall. It is known that there are modern ways to manage garbage.

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Why is Cornwall council failing so backwards to bring our disposal processes into the 21st century? I have written to the mayor and city council about this issue asking for a response, I have received no response.

Can’t find the words to explain their failure?

Members of the public must stand up to be counted through several letters to the council. It seems that only if we ask our elected councilors to do their jobs properly are we likely to see a significant improvement in the fight to control the coming ecological disaster. The more people who write to the mayor and council on this matter, the better the chance that councilors will do the job they were elected to do.

Our trash must be disposed of in an environmentally safe manner. As Mohammad Talat Naeem, a frequent contributor to this thread, said, “let’s act now to ensure our planet stays healthy for all of us.”

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I would add, to protect the future of our children.

Most people would agree that prevention is better than cure and who could have predicted wildfires. The federal government has imposed a carbon tax to help cover the costs of carbon incidents. It seems logical fires would fall under this mantle.

The government’s opposition parties are opposed to the carbon tax, inciting public sentiment against the tax. One can only wonder where the money would come from without a carbon tax? The annual costs of wildfires alone average about $1.2 billion. Drones equipped with specialized firefighting technology cost up to $85,000 each, and many are needed.

Everyone knows now that we can’t keep dumping garbage into holes in the ground. There is an absolute need for improved ways of managing waste. This is the responsibility of those we have elected to deal with such issues, our city councillors.

Those elected councilors have chosen to handle our municipal affairs and they are doing a poor job of it. They are responsible!

We all need to talk about the need.

John E. Milnes

Cornwall

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