VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

WE’RE IN DENIAL

In Canada, we need to significantly reduce greenhouse gases. The world’s youth and this country’s politicians cry out for change. We, the people, want “the government” to accomplish reduction targets.

Do citizens realize the economic cost to them to achieve goals?

The biggest change a person or family can make is to buy an electric vehicle. How many can afford that when trade-in values on hydrocarbon vehicles will plummet?

How many thousands will a homeheating retrofit cost?

Emitting companies will not reduce their greenhouse gases without government subsidies.

We want others to reduce our carbon footprint, but we will howl when we are asked to cover these costs as part of the plan to reduce gases.

We do need to change behaviour but, once again, we are in denial about how much our living standard will be affected.

Malcolm Macpherson, Valley

THANKFUL VISITOR

Nova Scotians from the Eastern Shore are apparently well known for their hospitality. I am very fortunate to have crossed paths with an individual whose actions should further burnish this reputation.

In a very disorganized day, I failed to check that my credit and banking cards were in my wallet as I departed my home in Delaware to fly to Nova Scotia. I discovered this only after I had travelled to the airport in Newark, N.J., to board my flight to Halifax. Returning home would have meant sacrificing my airline and hotel reservations, so I decided to blunder on.

Checking in at my motel at the airport was handled with relative ease. After arriving by bus at the car rental agency in Dartmouth where I had reserved a car, I soon understood that I would not be so lucky there. After prolonged discussion, it became clear: No card, no car.

I tried calling my friend in Chester about the situation but couldn’t reach her. After about half an hour, a man appeared, asking if I needed help. We looked up buses but learned the only one to Chester had already departed. After bemoaning the public transit situation, he disappeared.

In perhaps 15-20 minutes, he reappeared, grabbed my suitcase and said, “Come on, we’re going to Chester.” As we chatted through the rush-hour traffic and headed west on Highway 103, I pieced things together. He had called his wife to say he’d be very late getting home and also arranged a ride for his son to a scheduled event.

After a few calls from the car, I finally contacted my friend, who had been out and unaware her voice mail was not working. We arranged to meet at Exit 7. We spotted each other easily; passenger and bags were quickly transferred. I repeated already overused phrases, such as “I’m so grateful” and “I can’t thank you enough,” my friend thanked the kind stranger and then he was off, with a wave of his hand, starting his oneand-a-half-hour drive home to Porters Lake.

I’ve often done what I could to help strangers in need, but most of my efforts were dwarfed by this act of kindness. I’m not giving his name here because I’m not sure he would welcome such attention. Perhaps neighbours may guess who this generous father and husband is.

For myself, I can only remember his kindness and to try to emulate it in some small ways. Kudos to the fine people of the Eastern Shore and all of Nova Scotia.

Coralie Pryde, Wilmington, DE

FACTORING IN “WHAT IF”

Jim Vibert’s Saturday column (“Backroom deal only heightening tensions,” Sept 21) about the fate of the Northern Pulp mill in Pictou raises questions about the province’s contingency plans to compensate the fishing industry.

Discussion about the situation seems to focus on an all-or-nothing scenario. I haven’t seen small-business or new, high-value market options presented as an alternative to the quick, large-scale harvest used to feed this mill. Where is that conversation? And has the government, in the bigbusiness, status-quo scheme, costed the price of a mistake?

If a pipe flushing mill effluents into the Northumberland Strait is allowed, we have to expect that a) someone could be wrong in their projections and b) outflow could negatively be impacted by a storm or failure of design or construction. In either situation, there could be a major financial impact on not just the Northumberland fishery, but the regional fishery. That includes finfish, shellfish and aquaculture.

Two years ago, Canada’s fishery sector launched a brand built on highquality seafood coming from a safe, regulated, clean-water environment. One hiccup from a mill’s pipeline could tarnish Canada’s entire fishery in the eyes of foreign buyers.

For a more localized perspective, if something happens in the Northumberland Strait, how much money has the government set aside to compensate Maritime lobstermen, fishers and aqua farms?

When dealing with the environment, we have to factor in the untamed aspect. So where is the full costing for “what if”’ scenarios? Allan Lynch, New Minas

DIGBY COULD BE LEADER

Global warming is coming faster than we ever anticipated. Unfortunately, fossil fuels are here to stay until we develop a viable replacement. Nuclear power will not have a dramatic effect, so what can we do as Nova Scotians, or at least as Canadians?

Renewable power might be a viable alternative, and South West Nova is blessed with all three forms of it.

Digby could become a “green energy” leader by developing tidal power at Brier Island, Long Island and Digby, continuing to build wind turbines, such as those on Digby Neck, and placing them along the North Mountain above the Annapolis Basin, and assisting home and small-business owners with the installation of solar power.

Our four levels of government (town, municipal, provincial and federal) need to work together to find how we could address global warming and move funding from unneeded or unwarranted work to projects that promote our district, our province and our future.

John Light, Smiths Cove