Each year, I, like many, dread the summer. How will the fire season be this year? How many will die in heat waves? Will my friends, family and community be safe?
With each year becoming hotter, and more heat related fires and deaths, shouldn’t we be investing in clean technology instead of pipelines and fracked gas?
Canada claimed to be a climate leader in Paris at the climate talks, yet we’re not walking our talk. Every dollar put into fossil fuel development is a dollar we’re not spending on addressing climate change and investing in clean technology.
We’re putting money into sunset industries that are destroying our planet. How much sense does that make?
Canada could become a world leader, but we’re tethering our feet to the fossil fuel industry, sinking to the bottom environmentally, economically and taking along our reputation.
Imagine how much better off we’d be developing power from geothermal, solar, wind and other clean technologies. We’d have secure jobs, our land, air and water would be less polluted, and we’d be respected on the world stage again.
What are our political leaders waiting for? How much worse does it have to get before our politicians take meaningful action?
We need a real plan to transition off fossil fuels, not another pipeline to set us back.
Diana Van Eyk
Nelson
