To the editor:
In Friday’s issue, you published a letter from Grant Baudais entitled “We are not responsible for climate change.”
The title is wrong; we ARE responsible as the IPCC report which he so derides makes clear.
Re: carbon tax: The BC Liberals have it right on this one. The carbon tax helps reduce the amount of carbon used and is accompanied by a reduction in other taxes. It’s a win-win. Many jurisdictions (Alberta and Ontario, for example) use the carbon tax money for infrastructure or general revenue; B.C. does not.
Re: the Lord Monckton Foundation: This foundation appears to be the mouthpiece for a climate change denier who has no scientific background. I would suggest that we accept its pronouncements with many grains of salt.
Re: the Global Warming Petition Project: This American project reports it has been signed by 31,487 American scientists and engineers. That sounds like a lot of support but a quick Google search reports that in 2012 6.2 million people were employed in the United States as scientists and engineers. Thus those who support this petition are a very small portion (one half of one per cent) of American scientists and engineers. Other reports say that 95 per cent of scientists and engineers support the IPCC findings.
It is very interesting that this letter appears as parts of the Okanagan are being flooded. Welcome to climate change and get used to it!
By the way, I recall reading that “global warming” is a term developed by an advertising person. “Global warming” has a certainty to it that “climate change” does not. But “climate change” is the correct term as some areas will be warmer and some cooler, some wetter and some drier. Heraclitus said that “Change is the only constant.” Get used to it, change is here and more is coming.
Rick Gee, Kelowna