We can’t ignore climate change

Re Liberals table climate ‘accountability’ legisla

tion to set emissions targets in law, Nov. 19 The World Health Organization identified climate change as the greatest threat to global health in both 2019 and 2020. Climate change and air pollution will have direct and indirect effects on health.

Here, in Canada, we have already seen these: in Montreal, 66 people died during the 2018 heat wave; in Alberta and British Columbia, there have been more wildfires, resulting in more asthma exacerbations, severe allergies, and evacuation-related anxiety and PTSD; in Ontario, the warming weather has allowed ticks to increase their range northward, resulting in many more cases of Lyme disease in recent years; in the Arctic North, where temperatures are warming at three times the global rate, there are emerging issues with food availability. I could go on and on.

For these reasons and more, I am grateful to the Canadian government for introducing climate accountability legislation, in the form of Bill C-311, the Climate Change Accountability Act. The legislation will hold governments responsible for meeting the greenhouse gas targets and, in turn, for protecting our health.

Dr. Shima Shakory, Toronto

I am deeply concerned that the current government is trying to hide changing the legislation, via an omnibus bill (Bill 197), that enables a designated minister to overturn environmental protection that we have had in Ontario for more than 50 years.

In other words, we will be open to political pressure to override legislation that protects us, reducing our ability to protect our environment from specific groups who can financially gain from an exception.

This government has shown its true colours by previously cancelling largerscale alternative energy projects approved by the previous government.

The way in which the minister will be able to reduce current standards will likely be capricious, subject to influence and not supported by objective science. Earl Silver, Toronto

We cannot afford to kick the climate can another 10 years down the road.

The reports from climate scientists show the urgent need for action now, not a decade from now.

So the federal government’s omission of a target for 2025 in their new Climate Change Accountability Act (Bill C-311) shows a profound lack of accountability. Our children are watching and will certainly hold us all accountable for the world we leave them.

Doug Pritchard, Toronto

Many people are concerned that the challenges faced by a warming Earth are possibly the greatest threat that will be faced by current and future generations and that our need to focus seriously on the environmental issue is essential.

This evening I looked for a section in the Star that dealt with major issues, such as news, sports, business, life. I could find no section that dealt exclusively, or at all, with the environment.

Perhaps it’s time to rethink how the Star prioritizes this important issue.

Clearly, the current strategies of governments and industries around the world are not working.

People have often in the past been able to adjust and deal with serious threats to their existence. That is clearly possible today, including through the development of cheap, non-fossil fuel sources that would create a cleaner environment and many good jobs.

I believe this is an issue the Star should be pushing. Chris Smith, Toronto