Re: “Extreme weather is the new norm in B.C.” (Gazette, May 25)
Extreme and unpredictable weather may be the new norm not just in B.C., but worldwide. And the flooding, drought, and forest fires are probably going to get much worse.
These weather events are linked to climate change, which 99.9 per cent of scientists now say is human-caused. Still, remarkably, there exists, as you suggest, a “camp that refuses to accept the reality of climate change.”
This was also the case when the surgeon general issued the first warnings that smoking cigarettes were harmful to our health. The tobacco industry hired “merchants of doubt” who sowed seeds of controversy and denial. Many people, who did not want to quit smoking, choose to believe manipulative advertising, rather than scientific facts. Many died of lung cancer and other smoking-related illness. But could you find anyone today who has any doubt that smoking is hazardous?
The oil and gas industry uses the same tactics to sow doubt that there is any harm in global warming, suggesting it is simply ‘weather.’ In time, those who doubt that climate change is a serious threat to humanity will also diminish in number as the alarming and incontrovertible evidence continues to flood in.
Will it then be too late to reverse the trends?
Fossil fuels are the number one cause of GHGs. So why do governments continue to use our money to subsidize a sunset industry and buy a pipeline? Why not put that money into promoting renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal)? Into retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency? We must end fossil fuel subsidies and insist upon a progressive, revenue neutral carbon tax that provides incentives to re-orient the economy towards alternative energy, creating jobs and health, and prospering communities along the way.
‘Business as usual’ will take us to a point of no return, as Dr. Peter Carter and Elizabeth Woodworth, (of Pender Island and Victoria, respectively), clearly and succinctly state in their just released book, Unprecedented CRIME: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival. Please read it.
We owe it to our children to inform ourselves, to do our part to limit GHGs, and to insist that our government uphold its obligation to protect the air, water, land, and future health of its citizens.
Karyn Woodland
Metchosin