‘Blaming ’ climate change for good weather

Toronto had its warmest winter ever. Here’s what we can expect in March, March 5

I was interested to read the choice of words to describe our warmest ever winter. It was reported that climate change and El Niño are “to blame,” a somewhat negative term, as opposed to using a more positive phrase like we have climate change and El Niño “to thank” for the warmer temperatures. I think this change of tone — to something more serious — is appropriate. Because even though Canadians will invariably tell you that they “love” this warmer weather, a lot of us know that it should not be happening and that this persistent unusually warm weather is slowly damaging our ability to continue to live on this planet.

George Parker, Cobourg, Ont.

To paraphrase John Vaillant, the author of “Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World,” perhaps we should be saying that this winter was the coolest of our future. Some people are happy with more time to suntan, but perhaps they should acknowledge that those warmer temperatures come with a host of downsides, including drier ground conditions that act as fuel for fires, more drought which affects both food affordability and availability, and more pests depleting our boreal forest, which until now has been helping to clean our air. Enjoy your suntan, but just remember, shortterm gain for long-term pain. Heather McNie, Sydenham, Ont.

As another record gets broken, we must realize that while it can feel wonderful, it’s pretty bad for climate reasons when spring flowers are up from midJanuary. What will the summer be like?

Hamish Wilson, Toronto