Dear Editor
Thank you Victor Hult for your letter in the January 23 issue of the Battlefords News-Optimist (Taxes scarier than climate change). First of all, I will agree the carbon tax introduced by the federal government is ridiculous. It is ridiculous because it will not go nearly far enough to doing what clearly needs to be done, and that is to reduce to zero emissions. However, it is a step worth taking even if it contributes to small emissions reductions until we realize more drastic action must be taken.
I also agree that, as a senior who has worked hard all his life and with limited income, you are not the one who should be paying higher taxes for anything. There are, as you have pointed out, big emitters and also big consumers that need to be footing this bill.
Mr. Hult, if I am a sheep by agreeing with 97 per cent of climate scientists around the world regarding climate change, let me say that, certainly in Saskatchewan, I would be considered a proverbial black sheep. In the last federal election the province voted unanimously to follow the Conservatives who were going to scrap the carbon tax and had no viable climate action platform. So let me say, I would rather be in my current flock than in the flock of climate-change deniers who are holding the world up from making the progress that is required.
Lastly, 鈥渨eather鈥� and 鈥渃limate鈥� are two different things. Weather is what happens in our particular atmosphere each day and can change over minutes, hours, days or weeks. Climate is what happens over long periods of time. It describes what to expect in coming years and decades based on normals and trends and not what any specific day will look like in my neck of the woods.
This graph is one of many that are available by various scientists and organizations around the world that shows what our 鈥渃limate鈥� trend looks like over 138 years. And I won鈥檛 go into it here but a quick Google search will provide information about the projected effects of continuing down this path. I鈥檒l say it again, it鈥檚 time to be scared.
Laird Brittin
Battleford
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