The Climate change summit wrapped up in New York City. After this weekend’s climate march, the biggest of its kind, ever, climate is, and should be, on a lot of peoples’ minds. Global climate change is already well documented and there are roomfuls of data and expert opinions that support this. Some of the most harmful adverse effects are species maladaptation, shrinking of Artic sea ice, rising sea levels, and with these, comes changing climate patterns, including an increase in major storm events which are a huge threat to human life and prosperity. On a basic level, we need to stop treating scientists and scientific research as a radical movement- they are experts that collect, interpret, and present data, and their findings should not be treated as “one side of the argument”, but rather a valuable information source that politicians should be heavily drawing from to shape policies. Obviously, taking action on such a serious, widespread and often unobservable (from our Nova Scotian standpoint) phenomenon requires tackling many challenges. First and foremost, it means understanding that the emissions from industries with high levels of carbon equivalent emissions must be managed in some manner, and with that comes an understanding that our current “business as usual” economic systems aren’t 100% where we want them to be. Secondly, it means there has to be coordination, not finger-pointing, among many other countries, and summits like this are a great place to start. Moving forward, I don’t see any radical switches to an all-renewable economy on the horizon. What makes sense is to have a gradual shift in that direction, while continuing to use fossil fuels in a much more responsible way. Canadian industries already have a wealth of knowledge and expertise about greener ways to develop fossil fuels that could be shared with countries currently developing these technologies. Climate change is a real and global issue and the Canadian government has a responsibility to take courageous and significant action based on the best evidence available and within the framework of a global strategy. theguardian/environment/blog/live/2014/sep/23/un-climate-change-summit-in-new-york-live-coverage thestar/news/canada/2014/09/23/stephen_harper_did_climate_a_favour_by_skipping_un_summit_walkom.html
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 22:07:14 +0000
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