I am forever reading passionate letters regarding the importance of accepting that climate change is a reality, and it does seem to be so, the world is warming up.
The difficulty is doing something about it.
The majority of the world’s population live in countries that are not as developed as Canada and their energy usage is increasing and will continue to do so for many years. e.g. Canada consumes = 310GJ pp, more than 10 times India at 24GJ pp and India has more than 30 times the population which is still growing. India is building coal fired power plants; they have plans for 455 new coal fired power plants. Currently in India there are 120 operating versus than 20 in Canada.
Practically what Canada does will make no difference to global warming so hysteria is unnecessary! That does not mean that we should not do what we can but it is not easy to reduce one’s energy consumption.
Living in British Columbia we have a government whose policies continually promote poor environmental decisions (I say as I watch trucks driving in a steady stream past my door, mostly transporting logs for export from clear cutting of trees that we do not even have a policy of replanting).
So as an individual I see that Canada does not make a difference and my government does not care (or understand?) how can I get passionate about this?
For those that do want to have a positive impact, however small it might be, what are the options? Small four cylinder cars, small well insulated houses close to your place of employment, no holidays involving airplanes. Not difficult but it does not sound much like the world that I live in.
Duncan Hume
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