Editor, The News:
Re: Nothing we do in Canada will affect climate change.
While I’m not a climate scientist, I understand the science and data behind what those scientists are telling us.
Ron Hunter claims that the vast majority of climate forecasts from the past 20 years have not materialized.
READ ALSO: Nothing we do in Canada will affect climate change.
Not true.
Eighteen of the 19 hottest years on record have occurred since 2000. Higher temperatures have caused more evaporation and soils have dried out more quickly.
Increased amounts of water in the atmosphere have meant more rain and snow overall, causing flooding, soil erosion, drought, water scarcity, lower crop yields and wildfires.
Global mean sea level has risen and cities such as Jakarta are literally sinking.
The melting of glaciers and permafrost in the arctic is damaging ecosystems and causing the release of trapped carbon and methane.
Mr. Hunter feels that the highly effective price on carbon is “mere virtue signaling, where, in fact, research shows that carbon pricing effectively reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
He claims further that the largest polluters are doing nothing to curb emissions.
Not true: India has become a global leader in renewable energy, has strong energy efficiency policies, and has replaced over 700 million street and household lights with energy-saving and long-lasting LEDs.
China is the world’s largest developer of renewable energy and is taking the lead on environmental and climate reform and has pledged more than $1 trillion dollars in air, water and soil cleanup plans, shuttered coal mines, established a nationwide carbon trading system, spent hundreds of billions of dollars in renewable energy, and promoted the manufacture and sale of electric vehicles.
He states that Canada can do nothing to affect climate change. Many others would disagree and applying this logic to other situations reveals just how faulty it is.
Canada accounted for less than two per cent of the Allied war effort in the Second World War, but our leadership certainly made a difference.
We are a small country in terms of our population and absolute emissions, but we are heavy emitters per capita and that actually gives us more of a responsibility to innovate and create technology that allows us to deal with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Showing leadership matters.
Loraine Anchor
Maple Ridge