Dear editor,
As Greta crosses the ocean a second time, demonstrating what effort some are willing to take, let’s look at things in B.C.
Local government emissions totalled 273,242 tons of CO2 in 2018, down from 273,775 in 2017, a 533-ton reduction. At this rate, we will need 550 years to reach carbon neutral. But the emissions reduction program has been in force since 2010, where B.C. set a target for a 33 per cent reduction from 2007 levels by 2020, so how are we doing on the long-range goal? Well in 2018 B.C. acknowledged that we will blow through the 33 per cent target as we have currently reduced by only two per cent. We also plan on failing to meet the IPCC 2030 target as we have lowered that one to 40 per cent, which at this point also appears to be unreachable as we need a monumental 38 per cent in just 10 years (the IPCC target is a 50 per cent reduction). Looking closer to home, Comox declared a Climate Emergency in May of this year so surely there has been progress since then. Well, no this issue has been placed on the long term plan and to date, no action has occurred.
Does any of this sound like appropriate action to meet any sort of emergency?
What do we do when the politics needed are nowhere in sight?
Maj. Peter Weatherley, ret’d
Comox
