Editor:
In support of (climate strike participant) Elise Burgert and hopefully thousands of other young people, I would like to tell you, that you are the only hope for society to come to its senses.
When you are called brainwashed children, because you are worrying about your own future and that of the environment, it makes me sad.
You need to keep pushing and be aware democracies die when people cease to believe that voting matters. A majority government, federally or provincially, with a third of the total votes is not truly democratic. Despite this fact, they often behave like an absolute ruler.
A strong alliance between science and governments can make the laws that will protect us.
This alliance is absent today because most governments are intertwined with strong interest groups with unlimited resources. The only way to change this is by pushing the political parties. Let them know the voters decide, not special interests.
You are, however, up against strong forces. All countries in the world have chosen growth over environment, and it should not surprise anybody that science is ignored.
Science is not good for business, because it questions the consequences of growing the economy by exploitation and abuse of natural resources, and it enlightens us about the danger of the increasing human footprint and destruction of natural habitat around us.
If a paradigm shift is to happen it has to come from young people exercising their right to influence politics. You have to elect knowledgeable, compassionate and decent people, in a fair election process.
Politics should not just be about the next election or about special interests being allowed to dig and drill deeper or to cut more lumber to make pulp, it should be about making a path towards conserving and sustaining life for the remaining species of the world.
Ole Nygaard, White Rock