Dear Editor:
Re: West Van’s Monster Homes Add to Greenhouse Gasses, Oct. 7 front-page story.
“Houses with large square footage have big carbon footprints.” (quote from story)
There is a flaw in this logic. A 14,000-square-foot “monster house” is not adding as much pollution as a 3,000 sq. ft. house that has two “nanny” suites. It’s not the houses, it’s the people who live in the house who are contributing to the greenhouse gasses.
More people dispose more garbage, consume more water, use more energy, flush more toilets, use more chemicals for laundry, produce more paper/plastic waste, drive more cars that pollute the environment and damage roads that subsequently need more maintenance and repairs, use more buses, etc.
A single senior who lives in a big “monster house” will add only a small fraction of the above. On the other hand, condos that sprouted out throughout the North Shore are the main contributors to the carbon footprints.
Side note, those notorious “empty monster houses” add nothing to the carbon footprints or pollution; they are empty.
Gregoz Gawronski
North Vancouver
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