Letter to the Editor:
Re: “B.C. communities push back against climate change damages campaign” by Tom Fletcher.
Fletcher scorns communities who are desperately looking for ways to deal with the rapidly increasing costs of climate change: floods, wildfires and droughts. These, along with much more frequent extreme weather events, are imposing enormous costs on municipalities. Rising sea levels on the west coast and reduced snow packs for water supply and the ski industry are significant concerns. It is not surprising that communities have reached out to the very companies that have caused these climate change impacts: the fossil fuel industry.
Meanwhile, other communities, who have relied on this same industry for decades, are rightfully afraid of what will happen to them. Transition to cleaner energy will happen, but that too will impose high costs on municipalities and workers.
What is the only alternative to deal with these costs? Raise taxes. I guess Fletcher would prefer that, letting multinational oil and gas companies off the unhook for damages.
Judy O’Leary
Nelson, B.C.
