Image from the Toronto Port Authority web site

While I've been away, a post from last week about the Toronto Island Airport has attracted quite a following. It has topped over 30 comments so far, something not previously achieved on Reading Toronto. This is a topic that our readers feel passionate about. I thought it might be a good idea to provide people with an update on the often testy discussion.

The original post was about how we lack the analytic tools to value assets like clean air and water. The financial world has long been able to quantify the monetary returns of having a downtown airport. Unfortunately, the less tangible benefits of NOT having a downtown airport fall into the subjective realm of politics. Well, sort of.

In the future, when our grandchildren are choking on the cancerous soot of today's decisions, the value of clean air and water will be all too obvious and their culture will have figured out a way to value it in monetary terms. Can we accelerate that learning curve so that we spare our descendants the tragedy of environmental collapse?

Go read the comments to date and decide what side you are on.