Real culprits in climate change
The devastating hurricanes we witnessed in early September shouldn’t have been named after a sweet old couple like Irma and Harvey. They should be named after the true culprits: Exxon and Chevron.
Of course there are many more culprits; 90 companies have been implicated in a recent peerreviewed study, in the journal Climate Change. The study’s authors say they not only figured out how much pollution corporations have emitted, but how much their emissions contributed to rising oceans and global warming.
It became clear no later than the 1960s that continuing CO2 emissions would progressively undermine the climate; the major carbon producers could see that they were marketing harmful products.
Did that stop them?
The fossil fuel companies should be held accountable for the staggering economic impacts of climate change. Multiple lawsuits, similar to the ones against the tobacco industry, have been filed against fossil fuel companies over their failure to warn the public that their products could cause global harm.
These aren’t just natural disasters, they’re fossil-fuelled events, and it’s time the industry was held accountable. Dona Grace-Campbell, Kaslo, B.C.
Time to stop ignoring a stone cold fact
Re: Climate change an ‘idiotic’ obsession (Sept. 9 letter)
I want everyone to pay attention, because I am only going to say this once: The human race’s excessive consumption and emission of carbon has done serious, irreparable harm to our planet. This is the undeniable truth, a stone cold fact.
That we continue to argue among ourselves does all humanity a disservice. There is work to be done, the road is long, but even the most epic journeys begin with a single step. Let us take that step together. Brian Bonnell, Saskatoon
We need action on Indigenous rights
Ten years is far too long to wait. The 10th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples should be an impossible-to-ignore wake-up call to Prime Minister Trudeau that respecting Indigenous communities as equal partners is a requisite part of reconciliation and a priority for this country.
I wait impatiently for Trudeau to fully implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the right to withhold or grant their free,
prior and informed consent for development projects on their lands and in their waters. Bruce Chamberlin, Saskatoon
Compare savings to value of what’s lost
The Sask. Party has proven they know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
After a child’s death at a Saskatoon school our government should be ashamed for not listening to our province’s teachers, unions and parents who told them that cuts to education would ultimately create a threat to their safety and educational well-being. Who’ll now say the critics of budget cuts to our schools were wrong ?
Our government’s vision is too myopic. They force us to save on
our most precious and important institutions then act as if it were a mystery, a happenstance that lives are made worse or lost.
Our government has chosen cheaply — against the value of our kids. Don’t blame the underfunded and understaffed teachers and aides or the city that hasn’t barricaded all water bodies or the boy’s parents who trusted our education system with his life.
We need school staffing levels that go beyond minimum requirements to create an extra margin of safety. Yes, it costs money but it creates a value of the highest importance. Mike Eley, Saskatoon
A budget skimping on basics helps no one
So as a favour to citizens of
Saskatoon the city is suggesting keeping the tax increase under five per cent by decreasing services? Has this ever benefited the people that live here before?
With very little rain here we can see what poor infrastructure results in given the recent flooded neighbourhoods. Will the city really save any money by not sweeping city streets when the storm drains are full of debris and unable to handle storm drainage and in need of repair?
I’m sure the people of Saskatoon would rather do without parades and frivolous events and maintain and run the city first with basic services such as street maintenance and snow removal and extra garbage removal during the holidays. Let’s get the basics covered and run the city first. Darren J. Moore, Saskatoon