What if you were experiencing severe physical distress and running a dangerously high fever? You’d likely seek immediate medical attention. Someone might call an ambulance to get you to Emergency, stat. The ER physician examines you and says, “Your diet is killing you. Stop eating junk food. If you want to go on living, you’ve got to switch to a healthier diet.”
Well, the planet’s health-care team, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has said as much in their sixth report. Our fossil fuel diet is killing us. Earth is running a perilously high fever. The planet’s support systems are failing. We’re in deep trouble.
The remedy? Decarbonize. Fast.
The IPCC report warns Earth’s support systems are severely compromised, primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. Rising global temperatures will lead to more and more catastrophic weather events. We are near tipping points, where cascading consequences will be unstoppable. People will continue to be displaced. People will continue to die.
According to the report, we have a brief window of opportunity to change course. There is hope – if we act now to end fossil fuel use and scale up clean energy alternatives.
Yet the B.C. government has just announced plans to further expand LNG. We cannot meet our greenhouse gas targets now. Expanding oil/gas infrastructure is taking us in the wrong direction.
Speak up. Tell Premier David Eby, Environment Minister George Heyman, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Bowinn Ma, you want your taxpayer dollars invested in renewable (solar, wind) energy infrastructure – not subsidies to the excessively profitable oil/gas industry.
If you say nothing now, what will you say to your children and grandchildren when they ask what you did when you knew?
Karyn Woodland
Colwood
