Editor:
It’s encouraging to see the new President of the United States stepping up to the plate in regards to the impending climate crisis. Never in recorded history has mankind ever faced an event of such dire consequence if we allow the average global temperature to rise beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius.
In order to reach this goal, we must reduce our net carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
The new president realizes this and has started on a path to reach these challenging goals. These climate targets will not come easy, especially in the oil and gas sector where the President has already cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline as oil and gas prices continue to fall out of demand.
This economic challenge in Canada will be felt the hardest in Alberta and Saskatchewan, who contribute the lion’s share to Canada’s energy economy and who have not planned for the eventuality of their fossil fuel resource becoming a stranded asset.
However, the new president does realize that change creates “opportunity,” a key word in the presidents campaign. The change needed to save ourselves is also the opportunity to create alternative economic growth.
The president believes switching our energy and transportation infrastructures to electric, eliminating outdated infrastructure and the retooling of existing infrastructure will exponentially outweigh the negative economic effects of addressing the impending climate catastrophe.
We in Canada have the resources and technologies available to become climate leaders. It’s time Canada recognizes that the time for creating a clean, healthy, liveable atmosphere, while creating economic opportunity in doing so is now, before it’s too late and the opportunity is lost to a more entrepreneurial nation.
The new president believes, and I share his view, that the greatest economic catalyst the world will ever see will be the transformation to clean and renewable energy systems. The sooner we start, the sooner we become healthier and wealthier.
Art Green
