The ALLDERBLOB has learned that our resident Urban Designer, Jacob Allderdice, has been working for the competition. Just when you thought you knew someone…
Following is an unpublished letter to the editor of the Toronto Star and Car Advertiser, in response to a slew of lipservice-paying screeds voicing “concern” over the climate-change crisis.
to the Editor:
Much ink has been spilled at your newspaper regarding the climate crisis.
Just around the corner, March 3, marks the third anniversary of the tragic death of Tooker Gomberg: a prophet of global climate change and a man who worked hard to make things better for the planet.
In what is known as “Tooker’s last column,” a piece he wrote for the University of Waterloo’s “Alternatives” planning journal, Gomberg made this radical proposal:
“Ban car ads. New drivers are seduced through slick, expensive and sophisticated advertising campaigns. Car ads should be prohibited because driving is a dangerous activity, killing around 3000 Canadians annually in crashes alone, not including those who lose their lives or are sickened from air pollution. The federal government estimates that every year 16,000 Canadians die prematurely from dirty air. “
What would Gomberg have said about your recent blandishments on climate change, coming as it did on newsprint sullied by advertisements and celebrations of car culture at every turn?
Hypocrites will try to hide behind pretty words, but their actions always betray them. Will the Toronto Star and Car Advertiser ever acknowledge its role in the ongoing disaster humankind is making of its only home? Will it ever take steps to tell car advertisers to “back off?”
Despite their poaching of our talent, we are willing to put a plug in for the Tooker Memorial Bikelane project: Today, Saturday March 3, you can join the gang in a variety of activities including a group howl at the moon
(which is expected to shroud itself in gloom tonight in sympathy with Tooker’s celebrants). At 10 pm you can ride the route starting at St.George and Bloor, “en masse.”