To the editor:
Our three day camping weekend got cut short by apocalyptic smoke. As we were driving back in the thick, continuous, dusky haze being passed by massive RVs and pickup trucks living the consumerist dream I can’t help but feel deeply saddened by the life choices we continue to make as we see its full consequences before us.
This morning I cycled to work and was passed by another cyclist wearing a respirator. So it has come to this. Outdoor exercise a hazard to our health, better hop in the car and get a gym membership.
Heaven forbid we ask our fellow humans to lower their footprint to leave something for our future. That is not socially acceptable. Not polite kitchen table talk. Let’s nod our heads together and vote together for the easy remedy to maintain the status quo at all costs. That is what the lobbyists want of us. Let’s envy each other’s consumerism. There is no budget for conservation when we are constantly looking for other things to spend our money on.
We must politically remedy complaints of high gas prices, congestion on roads and school drop offs, our entitled free parking availability and lack of affordability of monster inefficient suburban homes. We are not part of the problem it’s everyone else on the road right? This is our addiction we continue to fuel. We focus our complaints on the price of fuel rather than the excess of our inefficiency.
The band Metric got it right with the insanity of this lack of freedom our culture has created “buy this car to drive to work, drive to work to pay for this car.”
It must be nice to live in such blissful ignorance, but on days like today, it’s hard to ignore.
If only we valued our future to do something differently, but hey the employee pricing and the bigger house is just too hard to ignore.
Squirrel! No one votes for climate action. Let’s vote for someone who says jobs and economy 50 times and builds pipelines instead without demanding a credible plan for our future.
Robert Stupka
Kelowna
