People continue to argue for cheaper fuel prices at the pump, yet this works inversely to the goals of lessening climate change by reducing greenhouse gases.
A U.S. government report due out soon is expected to indicate that surging demand for trucks and SUVs fueled by cheap gasoline is holding back improvements in U.S. fuel economy and greenhouse-gas emissions.
This from the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.
No matter what the global leaders decide, it will always come down to individual consumers to reduce emissions.
That will mean reducing our freedom to make purchases and have a lifestyle to which we have become accustomed and, instead, living more constrained and simpler lives.
But, how do you impose less freedom onto a population in North America that is used to such a high level of comfort?
And, how do we tell the rest of the world it cannot have all of these things we take for granted here in Canada and the U.S.?
That is the climate-change conundrum.
Perry Grunenberg
Kamloops, B.C.
