Toronto Star

Stop looking for scapegoats

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Big Oil deserves hurricane blame, Oct. 3

If you want to lay blame for climate change due to the creation of greenhouse gases, you need to look no further than a mirror.

Our personal behaviours, our communitie­s, our country, the modern world … are the cause.

The homes we live in, the cars we drive, the air travel, ocean cruises, the food we eat, the products we buy and the excess to which we consume things … they all point the finger at us.

North Americans consume hundreds of kilowatt hours of energy per person per day.

Environmen­t and Climate Change Canada estimate 672 megatonnes of carbon dioxide were produced in Canada in 2020.

Canadians average over 17,000 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2), and that number will be closer to 19,000 kg as we emerge from COVID-19.

It should be noted that this does not take into account the CO2 produced in the offshore manufactur­ing and shipping of goods to our shores.

The oil and gas and coal industries have enabled us to live lives of comfort, privilege and excess far too cheaply.

As a society we somehow think government is responsibl­e to legislate away the causes of climate change. We have to stop looking for scapegoats.

If we are unable or not willing to change our behaviours, the consequenc­es of climate change will only worsen, not only for ourselves, but all the people of the world.

Phil Warne, Pickering

‘‘ If we are unable or not willing to change our behaviours, the consequenc­es of climate change will only worsen, not only for ourselves, but all the people of the world.

PHIL WARNE PICKERING

 ?? RI CARDO ARDUENGO AFP VI A GETTY I MAGES ?? A man stands in front of his destroyed house in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Matlacha, Fla., on Monday.
RI CARDO ARDUENGO AFP VI A GETTY I MAGES A man stands in front of his destroyed house in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Matlacha, Fla., on Monday.

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