Editor, The Times:
“Rambling Man” Jim Lamberton might be at least partially right about something he recently said regarding climate change.
For those who have not been following it, Jim and I have been exchanging letters to the editor regarding an online petition I have posted that calls for a worldwide referendum on carbon fee-and-dividend.
In his most recent letter, which appeared in the Jan. 31 issue, Jim said, “What makes you think that you can control climate change? … The fact of the matter is no one has the answer to that….”
Well, the fact is that multiple people have proposed a large variety of answers to control climate change. Some have been implemented, others are still proposals.
Lamberton is partially correct, however, in that none of those answers that have been implemented so far have had any meaningful effect on the world’s climate.
One reason why that is so is because any method to control climate change must be implemented on a global level in order to produce change.
That is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
The climate situation is going to have to get a good deal worse before our national leaders and the corporate interests that largely control them would be willing to give up that much of their power.
In the meantime, what should residents of communities such as Clearwater do?
We are going to have to adapt.
The biggest single threat we face from climate change likely is wildfires.
This community is spread out with houses amongst the trees and trees amongst the houses practically everywhere.
I am certainly not an expert but I do have five years of experience fighting forest fires.
I believe that most of Clearwater could be saved from all but the most severe firestorm through adequate prevention measures.
It would be expensive, however (think 20 km of sprinkler pipe as a start).
Other climate-related threats include flooding, ice-storms and so on.
We shouldn’t overlook the economic aspects. Our economy is based on the forest industry and tourism.
A major fire or a series of smaller fires could devastate both for many years.
Climate change is too big a problem for any one community to deal with on its own.
We need collective action. Pretty well all of the small towns in the B.C. Interior are in a situation similar to ours regarding climate change.
During the spring of 2009 Clearwater hosted a three-day conference that looked at how healthcare was being delivered in rural communities across the province.
That conference was a success and led to similar conferences being held in other B.C. communities on a regular basis since then.
Perhaps it is time we hosted a similar conference to look at how rural communities in B.C. can cope with the multiple threats that climate change presents them with.
The spring of 2020 sounds like a reasonable time to do it in.
I plan to present a letter at an upcoming town council meeting to ask that District of Clearwater host such a conference.
And Jim, it still isn’t too late for you to add your name to my carbon fee-and-dividend petition. You can find it at https://tinyurl.com/GlobalCarbonPetiton.
Keith McNeill
Clearwater, B.C.
