Senior governments must take action
With all due respect to Saanich Mayor Fred Haynes and Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, governments must take on all responsibility in tackling climate change 鈥� specifically senior governments.
I can cut back on using my (electric) dryer and riding my bicycle more, but let鈥檚 face it 鈥� we鈥檙e beyond that.
Municipal politicians should 鈥渟tay in their lanes鈥� and keep our cities running in a sustainable manner, not scattering our tax dollars chasing every fashionable notion for saving the planet (or writing letters to oil companies) that pops up.
The solution to the climate crisis is incredibly simple:
All things that now run on fossil fuels must convert to electricity. Solar power is the answer. Everything that can support a solar panel should be feeding juice back into the electrical grid. We need storage capacity.
The Jeff Bezoses of the world could spend their billions on battery development, not space tourism. The best individual thing each of us can do is elect senior governments that will take on this crisis in a meaningful way.
Phil Smith
View Royal
Everyone needs to join the climate change battle
So the mayors in our region think everyone should join the climate change battle.
The 脿 la carte approach of our local officials is 鈥渃ute鈥� at best and totally delusional at worst. Where鈥檚 the plan?
In addition, the big elephant in the room is continued property development: the West Shore and its urban sprawl and, in Victoria, urban density.
The problem with the explosion in development is the lack of long-range thinking in terms of available resources such as drinking water. With drier and drier rainy seasons, our potable water on this Island is in dire threat.
Add on top of this building standards that are environmentally unsustainable, and our local politicians, not to mention our provincial government, just do not get it.
No one has the courage to think holistically on the issue, do what鈥檚 right and take the 鈥減otential鈥� hit at the ballot box.
Climate change is not a long-term issue, it鈥檚 a short-term issue because it鈥檚 here 鈥� right now. Bicycle lanes, electric cars and rooftop gardens, cute but 鈥� just all window dressing.
Lorna Hillman
Victoria
We all have a role in fighting climate change
We have had yet another wakeup call to climate change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us that recent changes in the climate are 鈥渨idespread, rapid and intensifying鈥� with warming that is already accelerating sea level rise and worsening extremes such as heat waves, droughts, floods and storms.
This news is not new for scientists have been issuing this message for more than three decades. But now there is no question that we humans are responsible for our situation largely from burning fossil fuels 鈥� coal, oil, wood and natural gas.
And so, unless we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, we can expect irreversible changes to the planet to continue.
If we wish to avoid a world that is unlivable, we must actively participate individually and collectively in bringing about a new paradigm that places climate change at its centre.
Sonya Ignatieff
Victoria
Burning wood also creates greenhouse gases
The debate over climate change being caused by human activities seems to have ended now that its effects can be seen in so many ways, such as catastrophic wildfires occurring around the globe.
There is a strong push to reduce fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), which must be done.
What is neglected is the CO2 produced by burning wood, whether in fireplaces or wood stoves. There is nothing cosier than sitting in front of a roaring fireplace on a cold day.
Burning wood is considered 鈥渘atural,鈥� yet should we not consider banning wood-burning fireplaces and stoves, as part of our drive to slow climate change?
Environment Canada frequently posts air quality warnings for the B.C. Interior during the heating season, caused by wood-burning devices. Banning wood burning would also reduce ground-level air pollution.
Kenneth Mintz
Victoria
Local planning does not consider disasters
What passes for urban planning in Greater Victoria is quite absurd. The beneficiaries are property developers and the dupes are the property owners and residents.
These are two quite distinct population groups. In the first case, the involvement with Greater Victoria is ephemeral, the time required to get building permits and selling the resulting structure a matter of years or months.
For the latter it is the investment of a lifetime. But time is tricky, and nowhere more so than here on 91原创 Island.
A Fukushima-style earthquake is not out of the question, but the timing is. It could happen tomorrow and without warning. New buildings, suitably braced and anchored, might sway and survive, but chaos is an absolute given.
Concerns in Victoria about earthquakes only last for a year or so after San Francisco suffers one of its periodic shakes. Then duck and cover is the order of the day.
Here and there are quaint signs denoting a street as a 鈥渄isaster route,鈥� but no thought has been given at all to the real parameters of a major disaster, which might well include fire and severely damaged infrastructure such as gas, hydro, water and sewage mains.
Even without a tsunami, disaster entails urban panic on a grand scale and a massive movement of people by whatever means possible. There are just three escape routes worth considering: The Pat Bay Highway, the Trans-Canada Highway and the Sooke road.
Lucky are those who can reach these routes, unlucky those who cannot because of roads cluttered not only with people and stalled cars but also turned into an obstacle route by our increasingly more complex traffic micromanagement.
Bicycles will not likely be of great use in such an event.
I like this area, and with every year that passes, the risk I run of witnessing such a disaster before my end comes, shrinks, but the story is different for those who can look forward to a future measured in decades.
I would avoid downtown highrises like the plague. I prefer to sleep near terra firma, and the more firma, the less terror.
Boudewyn van Oort
View Royal
Stop letters demanding Morgan be silenced
A few letter-writers demand that Gwyn Morgan be silenced because he, and apparently he, alone, is the cause of carbon-induced climate change. And that he and a handful benefited from the wide use of oil in the world.
Doubtless those who oppose Morgan have never and will never use or benefit from the use of petroleum and its millions of uses in products we use daily.
Maybe the Self-righteous Sanctimony Store will start selling mirrors that reflect reality rather than the funhouse-like distortion it provides for the 鈥淚 am not part of the problem鈥� cohort.
Clay Atcheson
Saanich
Don鈥檛 cancel Morgan, counter his arguments
Recent comment by oil industry promoter Gwyn Morgan has given rise to calls for the Times 91原创 to stop carrying his column.
The anger and distress his opinions give rise to is understandable given that his arguments fly in the face of widely understood, science-based advice given by virtually all competent authorities on global warming.
But to resort to the dubious practice of cancel culture would be a mistake.
The airing of opinions held by those with a vested interest in business as usual for the petroleum industry is a valuable reminder and warning.
Despite the overwhelming evidence of human caused damage to the natural environment, there remain powerful voices in opposition.
Morgan is an intelligent man with an undeniable record of success in business. This makes him a dangerous adversary.
It is vital that such influence be exposed for what it is and opposed with reasoned argument and democratic processes until it is laid to rest.
Tom Masters
Chemainus
Keep Lady Rose alive; it is a unique service
Lady Rose is shutting down. What a sad announcement.
I was close to tears with memories of all the trips and adventures we had on this grand ship.
Over many years we took countless out-of-country visitors across the mountain to spend a day enjoying coastal scenes and witness a working service to the small communities.
We saw household provisions delivered with cheers of joy from the recipients.
The captain was outstanding, accommodating our visitors with special treats. One senior Brit asked him if there was a chance to see a bear. He spent the rest of the voyage up with the captain calling out things like 鈥淏ear sighting, look left.鈥�
I can assure you he still chats about the trip.
Surely one branch of government can assist in keeping this service and visitors鈥� adventures alive.
Gail Brighton
Nanoose Bay
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