I am writing a necessary response to the recent comments by our proud member of Parliament Colin Mayes regarding the return of Arctic Sea ice. (Shuswap Market News, April 12.)
His statement is not wrong – it’s just plain silly. He is intentionally misrepresenting information or he is just woefully uninformed. Both options are unworthy of a federal representative when we are witnessing perhaps the greatest challenge the human species has ever faced. If Colin had actually read further on the Danish Meteorological Institute’s webpage he would have discovered that sea ice today is significantly smaller than 30 years ago and melting has accelerated during the last 10 years. They also have a graph documenting last year’s record-smashing September minimum extent.
It’s also well documented that the extent of new sea ice is misleading as it is made up of new thin ice vulnerable to melt.
In light of our present government’s hysterical push to develop fossil fuels and eliminate pesky environmental concerns, I can understand them wanting to downplay the hard facts of global climate change. But this sort of obfuscation – referring to “doomsayers’ sky-is- falling syndrome has actually proven to be just a knee jerk reaction to a cyclical spike…” reveals an arrogant mean-spiritedness.
He further underlines his incompetence by tossing off a cringe-worthy statement reminiscent of Sarah Palin (another astute observer of the contemporary scene), who offered, as her credentials in international affairs that she could see Russia from her back porch. In Colin’s case, he confidently chirps, ”My brother lives close to the Arctic Circle and yes, this is true…”
This level of ignorance is not helpful and is shameful coming from our federal representative.
Steve Mennie
