Editor, The News:
The fork in the road has been reached and our survival is at stake, period.
The path we choose will determine if we have a chance or not.
Opposing forces are well established and demonstrated by the way nations are split down the middle, particularly western ones as these are mostly democracies, of one sort or another.
The rise in populism is now confronting the establishment that has manipulated politics and used democracy to serve their agendas.
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Democracy is fragile and has, in many cases, been abused, often in an insidious fashion.
Constitutions of the western world are clear as to who is to be served, ‘by the people and for the people.’
This has been more like ‘by the few to serve the few,’ without much regard to the consequences.
This must change if we are to have a chance at reversing global warming.
The coziness of government to the business community has cost the people dearly and is the most single obstacle to making sure that our future generations have a livable existence.
The withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris agreement is a disgrace. Here, again, politicians making decisions with total disregard for future generations, not even thinking of the world and the challenges that their grandchildren will be facing.
Maybe one day we may be able to tweak our DNA and soften the greed gene. But there is some hope with the new generation, who are computer savvy and social-media-oriented, as the word passes on with incredible speed and mobilization.
We see totalitarian regimes such as China and Iran shutting down the Internet and social media to prevent their people from being informed as to events in the free world in fear that this will undermine their position of power.
With respect to global warming, the science is clear for all to see except for those with heads in the sand, those in fact who are in bed with special interest groups.
Future elections will have the young voters motivated as they see the writing on the wall.
They will put in power those with a clear and workable agenda to deal with global warming.
We can only hope that the example of Greta Thunberg will help motivate future voters.
Science has told us that the oceans will rise an inch a year.
That doesn’t seem like much, but when multiplied by eight years to bring us to the end of this century, that is more than two metres.
Again, that seems absorbable, but now add storm surge, spring high tides, freshet and all this combined with heavy rains and you have a problem.
Ice caps north and south are melting at an accelerated rate, as are glaciers.
The waters of the Pacific Ocean are warming and creating more evaporation. Guess where it’s heading? Our coast.
In the meantime, we sell millions of tons of coal almost every day to China, which continues to build coal-fired plants at a frenetic pace. The conflict is flagrant and embarrassing.
This is not a popular topic and is avoided, therefore we must vote with our conscience and hearts, not our wallets.
It is the power of one that will make the difference and move us towards dealing with the looming era of catastrophic weather conditions and flooding.
There are a few billion people who live along ocean coastlines. The few who have understood this because of past experience are the Dutch, who have invested in protecting their homeland.
Few others have and they will pay dearly unless people are put in power to do something about it.
Rod Gruzelier
Pitt Meadows