LETTER: Society must fight climate change and rebuild infrastructure differently, Langley resident argues

Dear Editor,

Re: [Redirect green tax dollars, Langley Advance Times, Nov. 25]

David Nielsen is correct when he says that we have to redirect public funds to make our infrastructure more resilient to climate change.

But it is false economy to take it from our efforts to reduce emissions. It makes more sense to eliminate subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.

Although Canada’s total emissions are small relative to global emissions, our per capita emissions are near the top. Among OECD nations, Australia, the U.S. and Canada are the three highest per capita emitters. China is the world’s largest in total emissions but its per capita emissions are 7.41 metric tonnes compared to Canada’s 14.2. All nations of the world will have to pull together to combat climate change.

The heat dome, the fires and the flooding have put climate change front and center in our public consciousness. But it will get a lot worse. These climate events are occurring with 0.8 degrees of global warming. World leaders aspire to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. We are on course to reach two degrees or higher if we don’t take urgent action.

If we had listened to the scientists 50 years ago when they first started warning us of climate change, we could have had a gradual and painless transition. But we didn’t.

Now we have a code red climate emergency, and we have to pull out all the stops to bring it under control. At the same time, we must not lose hope.

The free nations of the world came together to defeat brutal tyranny during World War II. After the war we had three decades of unprecedented prosperity from new technology and new institutions of world cooperation. We can do this and we must.

We owe it to our grandchildren.

Bill Masse, Walnut Grove

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• READ MORE: Work just beginning after close of international climate conference

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