To the editor,
The big issue of the day seems to be climate change. There is no doubt it is happening. I have seen big changes over my long lifetime.
When I grew up on the Prairies, the normal temperature in January and February was -35 to -40, occasionally dropping to the -50s. Now in the same area, -25 is considered cold. The sloughs where I used to hunt ducks as a kid, and even one shallow lake that I know of, have dried up. The glaciers in the Rockies have been receding for at least 70 years.
This started happening before carbon emissions were a major factor. Trying to stop climate change by reducing carbon emissions is like building a picket fence to stop a tidal wave. Instead, the world’s politicians should be focused on the future.
What happens to the world’s hydro electric power when, in 50 years or less, the glacier-fed rivers like the Peace and the Columbia have their flows reduced to a fraction of what it is now when there are no more melting glaciers to feed them?
Unless we build a huge increase in wind and solar power, we will have to revert to good old reliable fossil fuels or to highly dangerous atomic power.
In the foreseeable future, coastal areas are going to be flooded by rising oceans as the polar ice caps melt. This will affect millions, probably billions of people. Thankfully I’ll not be around to see it.
Get your heads out of the sand, politicians, and start planning for the future.
Afterthought: We have just had a totally unnecessary election with meaningless results. The money spend on this could have been spent on preparing for the future.
Alan States, Nanaimo
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