Dear editor,
A recent headline announced the Comox Air Show set for Aug. 15 with the theme “Saluting the Community We Serve”.
It all seems so… well, lovely – the theme, the show features, efforts to lessen traffic congestion, improving food services.
“Lovely” unless/until you consider the not-so-lovely consequences of squandering huge amounts of non-renewable fossil fuel and un-necessarily spewing more carbon into the atmosphere.
Wing Commander Col. Dunne is quoted as saying he loves the “positive energy and vibrance” that comes from airshows. It had an impact on him becoming a pilot in the RCAF. I can identify with that. In my teens, in the 1950s, I was a keen air cadet in Powell River and planned to join the Air Force until I learned that women at that time were not allowed to be air crew. Instead I sought to get a private pilot’s license and that door was closed when my eyesight wasn’t good enough to pass the medical exam. I married a pilot.
Ah, the innocence/ignorance in those years of not knowing the impact on the environment – not an inkling!
I doubt there is anything I can say or do to convince 19 Wing to cancel the Air Show. So please make it fantastic. Record it on film – as the end of an era. Make a documentary on the history of Comox air shows. Go out with a bang! Then, please, never plan another air show until your aircraft operate with a renewable non-polluting energy source. Oh, and retire the Snowbirds.
Beverley Howden
Courtenay
