To the editor;
Re: political deadlock at Madrid Climate Summit
As they mock climate change activism, what seems to induce euphoria for the superfluously wealthy, in particular Donald (What, me worry?) Trump, are but job creation and economic stimulation, however intangible when compared to the industrial destruction and max-exploitation of our natural environment/resources.
To such mega-money-minded men, ‘practical’ greenhouse-gas-reducing solutions will always be predicated on economic ‘reality’, the latter which is mostly created and entrenched according to fossil fuel industry interests. Indeed, for a leader to try reworking this ‘reality’ would seriously risk his/her own governance, however a landslide election victory he/she may have won.
Meanwhile, whether it’s the mass deforestation and incineration of the Amazonian rainforest (home to a third of all known terrestrial plant, animal and insect species), drier shrubbery resulting in unmatched wildfire devastation Down Under, record-breaking flooding in Europe, single-use plastics clogging life-bearing waters, unprecedented stalling hurricanes, a B.C. midsummer’s snowfall, the gradually dying endangered whale species, or geologically invasive/destructive fracking, or a myriad of other categories of large-scale toxic pollutant emissions and dumps—there’s discouragingly insufficient political gonad planet-wide to sufficiently address it.
But there’s always plenty of big business ostrich syndrome to maintain it.
Frank Sterle Jr.
White Rock, B.C.
