A letter in today's print edition of The Star by Jack Gallop of Thornhill urges all of us to reject the demagogic politicians who expediently pander to our fears; instead, we need to heed the consensus position of climate-change scientists and act accordingly for the greater good:
For those of us who see the stark and convincing evidence that we are destroying our planet through human-induced climate change, the cry has gone out to governments to take strong action to reduce our carbon footprint before this planet we call home reaches the point of no return.
And, according to environmental science, that point is fast approaching.
But people vehemently protest when ideas such as cap and trade (a program that was working extremely well) or a carbon tax are initiated. We want action, but not if it costs “me.”
The Ford government prefers to tap into our fears and inherent self interest by stating that saving the environment will cost too many jobs and add to the cost of operating our vehicles and heating our homes. So they fight the very initiatives they should be supporting.
Rather than justifying inaction, it is government’s responsibility to lead the way in educating every citizen on the environmental emergency facing this and future generations. Instead they close their eyes to this inconvenient truth, saying they got elected on improving the economy so that’s their priority.
Nothing is more important than doing all that can be done to reverse the effects of climate change. And it is time for each citizen to insist that we are willing to inconvenience ourselves and contribute financially to government and private initiatives to save our planet.
Present and future generations will be grateful instead of cursing our stupidity and short-sightedness.
It's not our stupidity they'll condemn us for but our selfishness and lack of courage. Isn't that the scourge of neoliberalism, the quest for everything? We feast on the achievements of past generations, devour absolutely everything in the present, and steal as much as we can from future generations, all while claiming it was our due, that we earned it.
ReplyDeleteOur overblown egos will be the collective death of us, Mound. We refuse to acknowledge the inevitable.
DeleteWhich demagogic politicians expediently pandering to our fears are we supposed to reject?
ReplyDeleteI'll reject the ones who say we can safely export all our GHGEs to China, as long as we gouge the little people with carbon taxes.
Because according to science, the Flat Earth hypothesis was proven wrong centuries ago. Although China is on the other side of the Earth, we still all share the same atmosphere!
Any offense to logic and rationality is to be rejected by thinking people, Anon.
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