Putin’s war will end with mass annihilation
Vladimir Putin’s continued saber-rattling threats of going nuclear to safeguard Russia’s interests and safety are probably the most ridiculous assertions by any political leader since the Cold War!
Russia’s interests will become non-existent when the vast majority of its population is annihilated. Its few survivors will face a nuclear-devastated landscape of starvation, radiation induced suffering and death. Sadly, those outside of Russia will face the same plight; the end of the human species as we know it.
Global warming will cease to be an issue. It will become our immediate reality!
John Stevenson
Victoria
Look to science, not consultation
Recently the federal government announced that it is planning a cap on oil and gas emissions.
They are planning a consultation process when what is required is scientific accounting as to how much regulation is required.
Consultation will confuse the issue and little will happen to change the disastrous trajectory of climate change.
It is not the emissions from distillation of oil into its various products that are the biggest monster creating global warming disasters.
The biggest issue is the pollution coming from burning the products created from a barrel of oil.
Capping the emissions from the distillation process will indirectly affect the amount of barrels of oil produced. However, it is not going to be effective unless the CO2 emissions from burning the barrels of oil are accounted for in the cap.
We need to also account for the CO2 emissions if a company exports to another country to process the oil and/or burn it there.
Certainly caps are a more effective solution than the carbon tax, which only raises the oil price and does nothing to reduce emissions. It is just seen as the cost of doing business.
Jim Wight
Sue Hiscocks
Victoria
Let’s keep wearing masks to protect others
Re: “Surge of sick children in hospitals could force surgery cancellations,” Nov. 25.
sa国际传媒 Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon says the provincial government must “make big changes to the system” in response to this year’s severe flu season.
Isn’t one solution to keep masking up around others this winter? Encouraging medical masks and, ideally, making them freely available would help prevent the spread of RSV and flu, and keep our hospitals from being overwhelmed again.
Getting the latest flu shot is important, too. After three years of COVID, British Columbians know that masks and vaccination help limit the spread of infection. What are we waiting for?
Hannah Mitchell
Victoria
They have been crowned, so they do as they please
Citizens want elected officials who are truthful and trustworthy.
They want a government that listens and resolves their most pressing problems.
They want and deserve to be treated fairly and with dignity.
The progressives in power in sa国际传媒 not only reneged on their promise to enact freedom-of-information reform, but now have curtailed debate in order to impose their solution to the housing crisis.
If dialogue and debate are revered as the foundation of a healthy democratic society, why are they now being swiftly eliminated like bureaucratic red tape? Is that why those who express differing views on matters of public interest are now labelled as obstructionist?
Do those who believe that “Father knows best” or that “Might makes right” fear the loss of their power in a shifting landscape? Is that why they cannot tolerate any view of the world other than their own?
In this fairy tale, those crowned King of the Castle do as they please. No wonder those who are not considered deserving of respect and trust are dismissed or reviled as “dirty rascals.”
This state of affairs does not bode well for anyone who lives in the real world.
How will citizens, whose voices are arbitrarily ignored or silenced, ever regain their trust in government and public institutions to serve the common good without fear or favour?
We all deserve shelter, a means of supporting ourselves, access to appropriate health care and education, and to live in peace with others.
What government is willing to fulfil this commitment?
Victoria Adams
Victoria
We are in a mess, someone has to to do something
I read the news today, oh boy … and what’s happening scares me. We are in a mess that has no way out. Our governments play at governing. For us the people? I don’t think so. Yet here we are in a global crisis that is not being taken seriously.
Look around you: People are doing without, fighting to survive. Look at other countries, people doing without, fighting to survive, but nobody is listening.
Promises made. Just words. Blah blah blah.
We need more than just a pat on the head. “There, there, everything is going to be OK” — but it’s not OK. How much more is going to be thrown at us before we say enough and actually do something?
Rebecca Evans
Brentwood Bay
Microplastics and other trash fouling our world
This is my latest, personal report from the frontlines of some shorelines where I spend hours (mostly feeling very disheartened) picking up bags of trash.
The ongoing reality seems to only be getting worse where anything and everything one can imagine is littering the oceans, and all perpetrated by human beings.
Styrofoam is still the most prolific, followed by plastic of every kind, pop and beer cans, cigarette butts, and I am seeing more hard plastic shotgun wads than usual. All of the above are so dangerous to marine life and the health of the oceans.
I just read, with great dismay, but which comes at no surprise, a headline on CTV News that scientists are now discovering microplastics in marine life, human blood as well as in breast milk. They have even been found on bees! It’s almost 2023 and this ocean pollution is still occurring.
When are we going to wake up and realize that our children and future generations are waiting in the wings to “borrow” the Earth?
There still appears to be no solid leadership from politicians on this matter either. Even though there are conferences held around the world on the health of the oceans as well as loss of biodiversity, nothing appears to result in any meaningful action.
It’s up to us, folks. Time to clean up our act.
Anne Forbes
Victoria
The real meaning of ‘democratic’
Premier David Eby needs a new dictionary. I hope he gets one for Christmas.
When Eby rammed through a new law to stop condo rental restrictions without consulting the thousands of condo owners who will be adversely affected, he assumed the role of a dictator. He forgot that he was a member of the New Democratic Party. Or maybe he doesn’t know what “democratic” means.
You’re not in Russia, David.
Cheera J. Crow
Brentwood Bay
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