Editor:
Letters: SCRD has declared a climate crisis, let’s make certain it honours that - Coast Reporter
My friend Anthony Pare suggests we applaud SCRD’s official climate change stance, and also inquire regarding SCRD’s related funding plans. Notably, Pare declines to provide recommendations for actions or for financing, beyond subtly hinting at the “Sue Big Oil” campaign (which encourages governments to fund lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry).
Governments can only embark on the monumental “climate change journey” through the substantial implementation of new taxes, penalties, disincentives and major budget/resource reallocations. Clearly, addressing climate change impacts, while also permanently reducing future emissions, will necessitate serious changes to our way of life. This goes well beyond mere platitudes or adjustments to attitudes; the many vicissitudes will result in a significantly more modest lifestyle in the developed world. In rapidly aging, highly indebted, Canada, a major oil producer, the reverberations will be especially profound.
I know of a few consequential individuals who have made remarkable personal efforts, such as collecting all grey water or abstaining from any air travel. But few in the industrialized nations have been willing to fully commit, through lived experience, to something significantly less than our relatively lavish lifestyles, compared to most of the planet. Whether it’s energy, water, resource or material consumption; waste generation; carbon emissions; housing and transportation inefficiencies; - developed world impact is disproportionately larger, often by orders of magnitude. Looming worldwide demographic and geopolitical pressures will only further exacerbate the challenges.
The question remains: are we truly expecting cooperation and compliance when governments introduce harsh change to tackle these challenges? Given the multitude of demands, complaints, and unmet expectations of citizens today, often over trivial, self-serving, or NIMBY concerns, it’s easy to envision widespread unrest and chaos as the future unfolds. Even Greece and Rome fell. So, let the games begin? Or fiddle while we burn?
Alan Donenfeld, Gibsons
