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RE: POLL: About two-thirds would opt for a mild winter, given a choice, Jan. 6, 2024.
Someone else quipped, more accurately, “Everyone is doing something about the weather, but nobody is talking about it.”
That was back in the 1980s, before most of us had even heard about global warming or climate change.
In light of that truth, maybe a better set of options for the question in the poll would be like one of these:
- A natural cold winter, where we can all enjoy outdoor activities, or
- A summer with wildfires and floods?
Or
- A cold winter, as is natural, or
- Summer conditions with drought punctuated by heavy destructive rains destroying crops?
Or
- A true Canadian winter, or
- Increasing fires, floods and wind storms all across the country, jacking up home insurance rates?
These are just questions about what is happening in Canada now. There could also be questions about how we feel about the number of people being killed globally by Canada’s contribution to climate change; or about the future, including the world we want to pass onto our children and grandchildren.
By the way, we are under 0.5 per cent of the world’s population, but we put out almost 2 per cent of the world’s climate pollution. Is that fair?
Combining that with conservative calculations from the World Health Organization and other expert studies of the number of people killed by climate change globally, Canada is killing between 100 and 300 people a week. Just so we all know.
Dave Kempton
Newmarket
