OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. OCTOBER 27, 2006 ANNA GRADOWSKA >TAFF WRITER On October 25th, the non-profit jroup People’s Action Commit- ‘ee For Healthy Air is sponsoring a public meeting on the state of ?rince George’s air. The meet- ng is being held at the Coast Inn of the North from 7-9 p.m. and is pen to everyone. As anyone who has -lived in >rince George knows, the air here zan sometimes become sickening. f you are someone with asthma or another respiratory illness, this can nake or break your day. Accord- ng the the BC Lung Association, ?rince George residents breathe ‘he worst air in BC and the third worst air in Canada. In the case of 2articulate matter that is smaller ‘than 2.5 micrometers. (PM2.5), which can penetrate deep into the ungs, Prince George ranks worst n all of BC, and falls well-below canada-wide standards for air quality. PACHA Meets to Discuss PG Air Quality The City of Prince George has tried to respond the abysmal air quality by creating bylaws to regu- late wood stoves and open burn- ing within the city. Other phases of air quality control are now in the _ works, and with hope, they will help to alleviate the air pollution. The new federal Green Plan, fo- cused on smog and air pollution, may help with Prince George's air quality, although the plan may be ineffective and is far from imple- mentation. In the meantime, groups of con- cerned citizen, such as those that formed PACHA, hope to promote ways to improve Prince George’s air. PACHA’s constitution sets out a goal to “effect improvement in air quality in the airshed of Prince George, British Columbia and its adjacent regions through advo- cacy, education, research and such other methods as the Society may deem suitable.” The PACHA meeting has been NEWS 7 scheduled in response to a need for information and progress. UNBC’s own Peter Jackson will be showing the findings of his air quality research in the Prince George area. Jackson has been studying the sources of pollution, which will greatly help the search for solutions. Also, David Suther- land, a representative from the BC Ministry of Education will speak on the importance of monitoring sta- tions around Prince George and their role in improving air quality. PACHA is forming a real con- nection between the citizenship of ° Prince George and the important issue of air quality. With decreas- ing pollution, lives will be saved and lives will be improved. With any luck, the watchdog group will create political pressure for the city and the province to take fur- ther initiative to an issue as press- ing as the air we inhale thousands of times a day. Google — Youtube takeover: Good? Bad? Or just plain mysterious? ‘ JOSEPH JEFFERY STAFF WRITER joni Well the Thanksgiving weekend was cife with speculation, word on the in- ‘ernet was that information organisa- tion giant Google was in talks with the ‘ast growing, popular video sharing site Youtube. On the Thanksgiving Mon- day all that was brought to an end with in official announcement; Google had srought Youtube for a sum of $1.65bn a hefty amount in anyones books but che big question on most people's lips was “why?”. Why indeed, there's enough talk of big copyright holders being on the verge of suing Youtube for hosting an-enormous umount of copyrighted material used without any hint of permission from che original holder, The takeover means chat the responsibility passes to Google :o deal with it and this means that they nust have a plan to deal with it. If the big G wanted be a part of the Youtube phenomena they could've done it as advertising partners instead of put- ting themselves straight in the line of fire. Initial reactions from users suggested that they might've done it to “clean up” Youtube, removing all the copyrighted content, but Google has claimed it will do no such thing, additionally it's own video service Google Video has copy- righted material on it as well. So, it seems they're not going-to be removing the copyrighted material but they have put themselves in the line of fire anyway, so what is going on? Well it could be that Google feels that the clash between copyright owners and the internet users is going to happen eventu- ally and they feel the need to be on the forefront fighting for the users. Google has an enormous amount of wealth and assets behind it and considering its search engine is one of the most used. and. runs many other search engines it may feel it has solidified its position’ into an immovable one. This being the case we». could be seeing a clash between Google and the people who want to get more money from the little people (us poor internet users who steal their copyright- ed material meaning overpaid celebrities and their puppet masters don't get more of our money) but has the first blow al- ready been struck? And if so by which side? Both Google and Youtube the day before they struck their deal made sep- arate deals with copyright owners, some to allow more distribution like Google's Warner/Sony deal to sell music videos on Google Video and at the same time allow free use of their copyrighted ma- terial and some to restrict such as You- tube'’s deal with Universal Music Group. So the question is, what does it hold for the future of the online entertainment industry? The answets, it seems, wont be forthcoming till we've moved down the line a little bit. i ‘Marchers in UNBC Call for an End to Poverty CAMERON ORR NEWS EDITOR On October 17, the day the United Nations declared to be the Inter- national Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the halls of UNBC filled with chants as a group of 15 to 20 students marched around the Agora building, through the cafeteria and finally the courtyard. In the courtyard of the Agora the leader of the group walked through the crowd of protesters and as he tapped each participant on their shoulder, they fell to the ground. These actions represented the ex- tremely rapid rate of death caused by poverty. ‘The event came about through the efforts of the local branch of WUSC, the World University Service of Can- ada. A representative says the idea for the protest came about the Saturday before the event. It was part of the on- going Stand Up campaign, which has been launched by the United Nations Millenium Campaign “to set an official Guinness World Record for the great- Vancouver considers est number of people to ever stand up against poverty and for the Millenium Development goals.’ WUSC wants to show that they stand behind the cause to end poverty. The focus of their campaign is the Mil- lennium Development Goals, which has been launched by by the United Nations and include projects to end extreme hunger, achieve universal education, and combat diseases such as HIV/AIDS. In order to help achieve these goals, there is a call for the Canadian government to donate 0.7% of the Gross National Income to aid projects. At the WUSC table they gave away one-eigth of a pizza to everyone who signed their petition to represent this amount. ‘The petition is calling for greater government aid to battle poverty and will be sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. If you would like to get involved in these or other aid projects, contact davidwalraven@gmail.com, For more information about any of these projects, ‘visit wusc.ca, 8goals.ca, and standagain- stpoverty.org, bid for 2028 Olympics Plan for joint bid with Seattle ‘somewhat visionary, tourism official says ERIC SZETO AND WESTERN BUREAU CHIEF CUP WESTERN BUREAU CHIEF VANCOUVER (CUP) -- The Van- couver-Whistler 2010 Olympics are still more than three years away, but tourism officials have already begun flirting with the idea of making a bid for a joint Se- attle-Vancouver 2028 Summer Olym- Pics. If successful, the 2028 Olympics would be precedent setting -- it would be the first bi-national Olympics and the first time a city has hosted both Olym- pic Games. Discussions also have the possibility of Oregon joining and mak- ‘| ing a Cascadian bid. “Tes still somewhat visionary,’ said Walt Judas, vice-president of marketing and communications at Tourism Van- couver, “but it would be a long time yet before we would be able to.” The meeting that took place between Tourism Vancouver and the Seattle _ Convention and Visitors Bureau on Oct, ‘19 resulted in a decision that would see creation of a feasibility group to study the possibility of co-hosting future mega-events. _ The 2018 World Cup and the 2020 World Fair were being discussed as other potential events Vancouver could host over the next 20 years. If the International Olympic Com- mittee (IOC) were to approve such an event, the Pacific Northwest corridor would go under major transformation and become a major tourism center in the world. Sy “We don't have the Mona Lisa here so_ we need other ways to attract people to come to this city,” said Tim Stevenson, a Vancouver city councillor. “Just hav- ing lovely mountains and oceans is only good for a little bit.” With the growing pains Vancouver has experienced since the announce- ment of the Olympics in 2003 -- cost overruns for almost every Olympic facil- ity being developed, even transportation upgrades; $600 million to improve the Sea-to-Sky highway; and the $1.5-bil- lion Canada Line -- Stevenson was a little skeptical of the idea. “I think we need to get through [the 2010 Olympics] first,” he said. “At the moment we're obviously having concerns about cost overruns which are fairly sig- nificant and that's really troubling.” More importantly, hosting the Sum- met Games -- double the size of the Winter Games -- would require more world-class facilities. An Olympic swimming pool, a proper track, soc- cer stadiums and more transportation upgrades would be needed to house an event of this magnitude. “How much of a spotlight do we want Vancouver to be in?” asked Stevenson, who worries that the sharp rise in Van- couvet property prices will continue. The average price of a home in Van- couver, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association, is $527,504 -- the highest in Canada and a 16 per cent in- crease from 2005. The national average is $275,505. The potential rise in property value isnt disconcerting for Arthur Griffiths, former chair of the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Olympic Bid Board and former Vancouver Canucks owner. Griffiths, © who played a heavy part in lobbying for the winter Olympics, feels that people shouldn't be embarrassed that the local marketplace is so desirable, “You cant really have it both ways. It is expensive to live in the city, that’s why you create urban environments,’ said Griffiths, who reluctantly admitted that a joint Seattle-Vancouver bid was still a long shot. “It's that catch-22/’