LETTER: Sooke development vs. greenhouse emissions

Re: Picture Sooke questionnaire (News, March 18)

LETTER SIG

Re: Picture Sooke questionnaire (News, March 18)

Hindsight, they say, is 20/20.

There is a growing dissonance between the bright future presented in the District of Sooke survey and the realities of climate change from now to 2050.

Does a net-zero mean reducing all emissions, including existing ones, to zero, or does it mean all new development will be built, putting no new greenhouse gas emissions into the air?

All new development and subsequent new housing and new cars coming to Sooke will emit greenhouse gas. Therefore, developers’ only way to be net-zero is to reduce existing emissions to balance out new ones to “zero.”

So, to build a large new development we will have to cut back on some of our other emissions, such as fossil fuels for heating. If everyone were to retrofit a heat pump to their homes, then we could afford to use those emissions saved by that move to build more buildings in Sooke and still stay “We are a Net Zero emissions Community.”

Chris Moss

Sooke


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