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LETTER: Actions speak louder than words on climate

Dear editor: There was an interesting juxtaposition of opinions on page A9 of the Dec. 20 issue.
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Dear editor:

There was an interesting juxtaposition of opinions on page A9 of the Dec. 20 issue. On the left side was a letter to the editor saying that people should “curb their enthusiasm” for trying to prevent climate change and keep the planet habitable.

On the right side was an advertisement from local MP and Minister of Environment and Climate Change Jonathan Wilkinson acknowledging that climate change is an existential threat that we must address through “bold action,” but tempering that acknowledgement with lots of language about “legitimate questions and concerns” of “folks” in Alberta and Saskatchewan, enabling “continued economic prosperity,” the timing of an energy transition, and so on.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time that either of them has weighed in in the North Shore News. The letter writer had previously complained in April 14, 2018 that your coverage of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion constituted “dressed-up opposition” to it, while Minister Wilkinson’s boosterism for that pipeline and for the greatly-expanded mining and burning of bitumen it would enable – and therefore the acceleration of climate change – is a matter of longstanding record.

Admittedly, sentiments of the sort expressed by these two have become pretty familiar over the past third-of-a-century.

On the one hand, we all know someone who continues to claim that the science of climate change – that is, physics and chemistry – should be disregarded, someone who is somehow able to close their eyes to all of the evidence of human-caused climate change, pull the blankets up over their head and insist that everything is absolutely fine.

 On the other hand, we have all heard politicians who solemnly intone about how seriously they take the threat of climate change, but then do everything they can to enable industry to get more coal, oil, bitumen, and natural gas out of the ground so that it can be burned and make climate change that much worse.

Of the two, I think that I prefer the climate change deniers.

By now, most people just roll their eyes at the nonsense they express. Politicians who claim to take climate change seriously, however, can still fool people.

Look at the recent election results: both the Liberals and Conservatives supported new pipelines and the burning of more fossil fuels, both had the same Harper-era climate targets, and neither had a plan that would get us to those targets, but most people still voted for them!

Michael Doherty
North Vancouver

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