November 24th, 2024

Real action is needed to fight climate change


By Letter to the Editor on November 5, 2021.

Editor:
The proposals available to deal with global warming have managed to divide our country without solving or achieving anything. The Liberals are not serious nor are they sincere about reaching any goals. Their plans are not realistic, and they know it. They are only looking at the next election.
Only someone who believes that Trudeau would be our PM for the next 30 years would support them.
As for the Conservatives, they have not made any attempts to deal with this existential threat to humanity.
The western provinces, including Alberta, have chosen fighting and demagoguery. All over Canada, one can only observe politicians fighting for votes and not practical answers. None of them has provided any creative solutions. They all lack imagination and sincerity.
Most realistic economists are of the view that fossil fuels will be needed for almost another century.
The truth of the matter is that is how long the world economy will need to transition from fossil fuel to clean energy.
Alberta and other oil producing nations do not have to be defensive nor opposed to tackling the issue.
Indeed, they can play an active constructive role in bringing the temperature down – literally and figuratively.
Canada is a very generous nation. We can invest the money provided to poor nations in creative projects that provide jobs and transform deserts into oases.
All this can be done while lowering the temperature worldwide.
All it takes is assembling huge floating tents over the deserts of Africa and other continents. By blocking the sun, the temperature would decrease drastically.
Ironically, these floating tents would require oil for their liners. This proposal would help everyone, including the oil industry.
This is one proposal that does not destroy any industry.
Our aim is to work together not to fight each other. Remember, united we stand, divided we fall.
The dire situation we are facing demand that we all work together to avoid extinction.
Robert Skaf
Thunder Bay, Ont.

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buckwheat

We really need to try something other than a carbon tax. When some “scientist” or computer programmer can provide proof that the carbon tax to date has dropped the temperature world wide by ___ degrees I’m in. Otherwise it is a money grab totally dependant on people like yourself wondering around with your hair on fire to continue the sham. Cue the “denier” quotes

phlushie

yes the scientific proof has change to a majority vote to garner more money to be distributed to the corporate welfare bums.

buckwheat

The corporate plunderers are now the Musks and Solyndras of the world. I think in a show of good faith you may wish to give up your legal tax deductions in 2021, you know to help the Climate cause. They will have more then to “save the planet”

buckwheat

This link is instructive…https://youtu.be/5U2UoR-oB1M
When Trudeau and all his friends and all the proponents of climate armageddon start acting like St. Francis, count me in.

phlushie

enjoyed the video

Duane Pendergast

Good idea to reflect some of that solar energy to reduce warming, Robert! Would you believe some are recommending installing black solar panels over African deserts which will absorb even more solar energy?
https://www.dpi-proceedings.com/index.php/dtcse/article/view/23704

SophieR

So, you’re in favour of floating giant tents over the Sahara? As if the sand has low albedo?

And, in the article, how do wind turbines reduce ‘earth cooling’? And how would anybody be able to know the radiation absorbed by a solar panel compared to what amount would ultimately be reflected back into space? Context would be everthing for these vague assertions, would it not?

And carbon emmissions are also the cause of ocean acidification – another crisis in the making. Masking ghg emission concerns with an umbrella (aka geoengineering and the flying tarp) is a failure to take this crisis serously.

Duane Pendergast

Here is a photo suggesting the sand in the California desert is reflecting a lot of the solar energy relative to the solar panels, Sophie.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=desert+sunlight+solar&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IESR3A&pc=EUPP_
Wind turbines take energy from the wind and reduce atmospheric circulation which might help transfer and radiate infrared energy back out to space.
Wind turbine proponents have even suggested they could have an effect on hurricanes.
https://guardianlv.com/2014/02/offshore-wind-farms-could-control-hurricanes/
No doubt relatively small effects in the big picture of earth’s energy balance, but so is the CO2 effect.
Lot’s of room for uncertainty in calculations of climate change and the development of potential solutions.

Last edited 3 years ago by Duane Pendergast
SophieR

Thank you, Duane.

I understand the solar panel vs. sand. That was my point. It seemed you were supporting the ‘flying tent’.

It seems to me that parking lots would dwarf solar panels for absorbing radiation. But I see that you are just trying to disparage renewable energy. BTW CO2 (from the burning of fossil fuel) is the driver of the climate change. But go ahead and obfuscate.

zulu1

Quote ” The western provinces, including Alberta, have chosen fighting and demagoguery” Actually that is not the case, the provincial government and the energy industry are attempting to work with the federal government to reach common goals.
As for the final paragraph, it has little credibility.

biff

the carbon tax is a sad joke. the cost of living will increase, the usual pockets will have found yet another way to get lined, the public will again be fleeced, and the plundering and pillaging of the planet will continue as usual. pollution and climate issues have been talked about for multiple generations already. every few years new target dates are set, and every few years targets are missed and new target dates further still down the road are set. “demockracies” around the world support the plundering and pillaging and the increasing wealth of the very wealthiest at the expense of the peons two ways: they buy into the revolving door of changing from tweedle-dum to tweedle-dee every few years always to get much the same governance; they literally keep buying as heavily as they can into consumerist living, seeking to satisfy every want they can afford. and then some, despite the devastating and entirely unsustainable impacts that approach has on the planet. keep at it, folks, the carbon tax will save us!

McKnight

News Flash: All our over consumption and foot-dragging is going to increase the cost of living beyond your worst nightmare.
Because all those “Savings” from Walmart (And the other sinners in this story) had a price.