For immediate release:
April 18, 2005

Barrett recognizes Earth Day challenges

Queens Park – 35 years after recognizing his first Earth Day, PC Environment Critic Toby Barrett says the challenges to environmental protection have grown with the ever-increasing impact of human population growth.

The Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant MPP, spoke in the Ontario legislature today on the importance of recognizing the challenges that we face as a growing population, citing the United Nations Millennium Assessment report.

“Among the findings: global fish stocks are at a 30-year low; deforestation and loss of wetland is reducing our protection against pollution; the majority of wildlife species are declining—a 12% decline for birds, 25% decline for mammals, and 32% of amphibians are threatened with extinction in the next 100 years,” Barrett stated. “Human activity is putting too much strain on our earth.”

Barrett then pointed out that, in the GTA/Golden Horseshoe, another four million people are expected to arrive in the next 30 years.

“I recall my first Earth Day as an environmental science teacher in 1970 - at that time, the global population was 3.7 billion; today, it’s 6.5 billion,” said Barrett. “That’s a lot of garbage - that’s a lot of water pollution - for an already stretched-out ecosystem.”

The PC Environment Critic concluded with a call for action, and sobre reflection, this coming Earth Day.

“We have to keep in mind the bigger picture and the challenges we face.”

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For more information please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: 519-428-0446, 905-765-8413 or 1-800-903-8629