To the editor:
I’d like to comment on the Guest Shot, headlined U.S.-China agreement lead the way, on Page A8 of the Jan. 29 edition of the Free Press.
The United States and China have recently announced targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
While this is a step in the right direction, even if the targets are achieved, those countries would still be emitting huge amounts of GHG.
According to the agreement, China could be increasing its already massive emissions every year for the next 15 years, at which point, hopefully, they will stop increasing.
They say they are doing something, while not really doing anything to reduce emissions substantially.
In a previous Guest Shot in the Jan. 15 edition, headlined A carbon price for Canada?, the author writes that in B.C., where we’ve had a carbon tax since 2008, per capita GHG emissions has declined 9.9 per cent.
But what about total GHG emissions? Have they gone up? Probably.
There are more people and more cars in B.C. now than in 2008. The new Port Mann Bridge allows a lot more traffic.
It irks me that we are being tricked into thinking something is actually being done to reduce GHG emissions. If anything, I’d say overall GHG emissions are rising.
We are very fortunate in B.C. to have BC Hydro, which is 95 per cent renewable, clean hydro power. Especially if one day we do decide to stop using fossil fuels.
The value of our B.C. public power utility is obviously staggering beyond belief. So it is completely baffling why our current B.C. Liberal government is so intent on destroying it.
BC Hydro is now partly privatized to a foreign multi-national corporation. It is being sunk deep in debt. It owes over $50 billion in expensive – questionable private power contracts.
Hugh Thomas
100 Mile House
