FLETCHER: No, B.C. is not burning
read the title of Tom Fletcher's opinion
piece, which ran in many of Black Press's local newspapers including the
Townsman, this week.
Well, if it is not
burning somewhere close to where you live, it likely is or has been smoking. The reason why someone would write this, what could be interpreted as a
deliberately provocative and offensive column is a mystery, unless it is an
attempt to minimize the real issue of climate change, which looms large on many
minds and is a serious election topic of great concern for many voters.
"Snowpacks for southern B.C. were indeed the lowest on record
this past winter, but that record only goes back 31 years. When were high
snowfall records last broken?” “That would be 2011.", wrote Fletcher as if to dismiss the considerable body of long term
statistics, which point to much more serious evidence for climate change than
fluctuating precipitation alone, in just this part of BC. It is a lot more complex than that and one only
has to go to a source such as NASA to find the global trends, which affect us
all. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/ArcticIce/
We have been advised by many
scientists, as the result of much research and proof, to prepare for extremes
of everything, floods, drought, wind and temperatures. It was only last week
that we read, “The Earth experienced its hottest June and the
hottest first half of the year since records began, according to scientists.” http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/21/climate-scientists-say-2015-on-track-to-be-warmest-year-on-record
Climate change is not an hypothesis any more.
Fletcher also questions the
predictions of ‘periods of drought being the new normal’ with the question:
“Is drought also the “new normal”? “The B.C.
government’s own climate-change forecast is for increasing overall
precipitation, albeit with more rain and less snow”, he wrote.
Either Fletcher
has a real lack of understanding of what climate changes really are, in this
article or there is a motive to soothe our souls into thinking we need not do
anything about the changes.
Fletcher
refers to the upcoming Climate Summit as, “the
latest global climate doom festival in Paris this fall”, a patronizing and dismissive
characterization of what, for many, is of major importance for every economy
and survival of much of life as we know it.
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