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Weathering the climate debate

More letter-writers weigh in on climate change, defending their stands and encouraging a focus on solutions.

Editor:

Re: Of course mankind has an impact, Jan. 12 letters.

Schooled on Al Gore’s knee, it is no wonder that the Warm-Mongers, in a futile attempt to discredit my defence of Dr. Roy Strang, seize the Gore ploy of claiming that I “said” things which never passed my keyboard. No, I never said that humans have no impact on the environment; never claimed that CO2 had no role in GW.

Grasping at another Gore ruse, (letter-writer Ivan) Scott claims support where none exists. He suggests, “Just ask the people who have died from drought.”

No one knows how much CO2 is emitted by volcanoes. The Warmists say: “hardly any”; while the Sceptical Scientists say: “a great deal”.

(Letter-writer Bill) McConnell converts a tiny increase in CO2 into a scary 37 per cent.

If hypothetically the increase had been from 0.01 per cent to 0.02 per cent, presumably he would use that 100 per cent increase to justify three times the hysteria.

No one agency is authorized to state the earth’s average temperature. All use different raw data and with different analyses produce different results. I quoted the respected Dr. Phil Jones and East Anglia. (Letter-writer Stephen Faraher-)Amidon chooses to quote the Warmist-biased, NOAA.

Also, is there any point to determining the “average” earth temperature in a calendar year over jungle, desert, the poles and 70 per cent of the surface as ocean? Prof. Bjarne Andresen (University of Copenhagen) said that, that average is “…as meaningless as the average number in a telephone directory!”

No Warm-Monger dare tackle 1940 to 1975, the 35-year period when CO2 rose but temperatures fell.

My main conclusion is unassailable. The link between CO2 and temperature is “uncertain”.

David Poole, Surrey

•••

In response to the debate regarding climate change: There is no excuse for us to continue polluting our planet: extinction and habitat destruction; pesticides and chemicals in wildlife, food and our children; sewage sludge pouring into our ground water and oceans; plastic filling our oceans; the collapse of our wild salmon stocks and bee colonies.

Sadly, this is the short list of destruction we are all in some way responsible for.

Therefore, our time, energy and all the ‘expertise’ that we as a community can bring to the table now needs to be focused on solving the problems we have created on planet earth.

S. Watkins, White Rock

•••

Climate change expert Mark Jaccard from Simon Fraser University says B.C. is on its way to blowing its emission reduction targets.

This concerns me on a number of levels, not the least of which is the fact B.C. has, up until now, been a world leader on environmental issues with the toughest greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in North America.

According to Jaccard, the only way for B.C. to meet its emission reduction targets is through a major move to renewable energy such as hydroelectricity, wind, solar or run-of-river. Fortunately, renewable energy is available in great abundance within B.C.’s borders and we merely need to develop it and put it into service for the province to maintain its environmental leadership.

In terms of job creation, I can’t think of anything that would produce more jobs throughout B.C. than a plan to massively expand the province’s renewable energy infrastructure on a scale similar to that of the massive hydro energy development projects that took place in B.C. during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Jobs and the environment don’t need to cancel each other out.

B.C. can successfully lead on both.

Yolanda Lora Vilchis, Surrey