sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½

Bus stops need a nearby park ’n’ ride

At the Pat Bay Highway and Mount Newton Cross Road, the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ government spent more than $8 million for two new bus stops and dumped all the dirt on their property beside the highway. That should have been a parking lot!

For about 10 per cent more, we could have had a park ’n’ ride!

There isn’t even a drop-off spot near the stops.

Don Halliday

Saanichton

Unprovoked invasion is not a proxy war

Re: “NATO gives Ukraine a clear path forward,” letter, July 14.

I, too, was disappointed that Ukraine wasn’t given a definite time frame for joining NATO. However, the writer falls into the predictable Russian line that their invasion of Ukraine, somehow, is a proxy war with the west.

Although the support of scores of Western countries has enabled Ukraine to counter the aggressor, it’s Ukraine’s battle alone to push back the naked aggression of an imperialist neighbour.

To somehow describe this as a proxy war would be akin to calling the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 as a proxy war between Germany (and, at that time their Russian allies) and Poland (with France and the United Kingdom).

I’m sure the Poles would not have taken their struggle as some sort of a “proxy war.” It was an unprovoked invasion. Period.

Walter Salmaniw

Shawnigan Lake

Concrete barriers cause traffic problems

Plonking: the practice of installing concrete barriers and/or vertical posts to create protected bike lanes.

While this initiative has good intentions by creating protected bike lanes, it also creates many problems for other users. Plonking has been installed on roads in Saanich that were already too narrow to begin with.

Having these in place prevents vehicles from pulling out of the traffic lane to yield to emergency vehicles or when they experience a breakdown. If you break down on the road, you have to stop in the traffic lane.

Although snow is a rare event, when it happens where do the snow plows push the snow?

Instead of the expense and labour involved in plonking, Saanich should widen roads where possible to accommodate all road users, not just cyclists.

There seems to be an anti-car agenda pervading local governments. This is not the right strategy as we will still need cars but they will not be internal combustion powered.

Douglas Jang

Saanich

Two wrongs do not make  a right

Re: “sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s economic hara-kiri will have little impact on climate change,” commentary, July 15.

Gwyn Morgan logic in favour of doing nothing about carbon emissions, as applied to other spheres in life:

Air pollution is responsible for an estimated two million deaths in China each year. Ergo, there’s no point doing anything about the 15,300 annual deaths in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ attributed to air pollution, a relative drop in the bucket.

Chinese authorities are holding an estimated two million people in forced labour and indoctrination camps. If there’s a profit to be made, sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ should set up a few dozen similar facilities — a pittance in the overall scheme of things.

Earl Fowler

View Royal

Don’t ignore facts about carbon emissions

Re: “sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s economic hara-kiri will have little impact on climate change,” commentary, July 15.

I expect to read the usual critiques regarding Gwyn Morgan’s comments, which are primarily directed at the impact of Liberal policies on those that can least afford it.

I expect however that, rather than acknowledging those facts, some readers will choose to slam him, primarily because of his past connection to the oil industry.

I do not dispute the facts he presents. I do support the evidence that reducing the use of fossil fuels will lead to a cleaner environment for many Canadians, particularly in highly populated regions.

But I do not support the thinking that doing so at significant economic and social costs to Canadian society is a requirement to help resolve the world’s climate change issues.

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ generates about 1.5 per cent of global carbon emissions. China, the U.S., India and Russia generate about 50 per cent. Yes, we should do our part, but we can and should be able to have a more significant impact by directing our ingenuity and resources to places in the world where even a 10 per cent reduction would be more impactful than the changes that our governments are targeting.

China generates about 29 per cent of carbon emissions but that portion will likely grow as more residents demand more electricity, a significant percentage of which is produced by burning coal with new coal fired plants being started up every week.

Would they use our LNG instead of building another coal-fired plant?

There are likely more ways sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ can be a climate leader but sadly when we are led by politicians who appear to lead with their egos, we are wasting a huge opportunity.

We can all have an influence on the carbon emission discussion but it is not helpful if we slam those who attempt to present the facts.

Dwayne Leskewitch

Victoria

At some point, resources will not be enough

Re: “sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s economic hara-kiri will have little impact on climate change,” commentary, July 15.

To all the masterminds (Hey, Gwyn Morgan) and their thoughts on our many environmental problems, answer me this:

At what time do we arrive at a point of an infinite number of people chasing a finite supply of resources?

Whitney Moyer

Victoria

We all have a role in fighting climate change

Re: “sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s economic hara-kiri will have little impact on climate change,” commentary, July 15.

The commentary implies that Canadian climate policies are some kind of reverse psychology undertaken to increase costs for lower income citizens and to make sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ less competitive. It suggests that sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s greenhouse gas emissions are too small to worry about anyway.

The problem with the “emissions too small” argument is this: If sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s emissions are insignificant, then the 190 countries (out of the world’s 200) with lower emissions must be insignificant too.

Can the climate emergency be dealt with effectively if ninety-five per cent of countries are allowed to continue polluting? If so, then all we have to do is allocate China’s emissions by their provinces, because the average emissions of each Chinese province is similar to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s.

The article references electrification of James Bay cruise ship shore power without mentioning the air pollution and health benefits. Electrifying the nation also has benefits that were not mentioned.

Climateinstitute.ca projects that, by 2025, the previous 10 years of climate change will have reduced sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s GDP by about $25 billion.

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ is warming twice as fast as the world average, so it’s reasonable to expect our climate costs to be in the trillions by 2100. The longer we delay clean energy, the higher the costs (financial and otherwise).

The temperature in parts of the U.S. and Europe is in the mid-40s. Biblical downpours, unprecedented fires, and ice melt are increasing.

The billions spent on communications and lobbying by fossil fuel companies in the years since the Paris accord can’t gaslight that away.

Bob Landell

Victoria

Human suffering will only intensify

Re: “sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s economic hara-kiri will have little impact on climate change,” commentary, July 15.

The overwhelming international scientific consensus is that the frequency and intensity of “extreme weather events” will intensify throughout the lifetime of anyone reading this letter.

Loss of life, human suffering, damage to infrastructure, and collapse of food systems (resulting in mass migration) will only intensify.

I therefore find it not only disappointing, but profoundly disturbing, that the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ would publish a ­commentary by a retired oil and gas executive referencing “the perceived urgency to ‘do something’ about carbon emissions.”

Jack Hicks

Shawnigan Lake

Our planet Earth has its own bottom line

Re: “sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s economic hara-kiri will have little impact on climate change,” commentary, July 15.

Goodness, Gwyn Morgan’s observations have value and should be considered. So too did Capt. Edward Smith and the White Star Line’s view that it was important to have a “best time” record for the Titanic on its maiden voyage.

Improving economic and productivity records are important for the “bottom line.”

The planet has a bottom line as well. Too bad for the good ship Earth and all of its passengers.

Barry Rolston

Victoria

Our fossil fuel actions already hurting economy

Re: “sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s economic hara-kiri will have little impact on climate change,” commentary, July 15.

The author was spot on with the ­assessment of the effects of our current climate policies on both out economy and the “global” efforts to halt climate change.

Our allies, trying to get off of Russian oil and gas, begged us for Canadian products because renewable weren’t reliable enough at this time and all we gave them was platitudes about how they should quit fossil fuels.

They went to countries with less stringent environmental and human rights policies instead.

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ can’t operate as some sanctimonious climate autocracy where we can eliminate everything we emit and call it job done. We are seeing it play out in our economy. Our goods are getting more expensive which reduces both foreign and domestic sales.

The one thing Morgan did not mention is that the inflation that is draining our bank accounts can be linked to our taxes. Carbon tax has had a knock-on effect on our supply chain with the upstream costs being passed down to you and I as increased prices and then increased further by carbon tax on our purchase as well.

This drives inflation, and the Bank of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ will keep raising interest rates which will make all of us poorer and increase homelessness.

Homeowners will lose their homes because they can’t afford their mortgages.

Before any of the “lucky you to own a home” crowd rejoices, they will likely face the same fate.

Rents will continue to increase so that landlords can afford the increased cost of their mortgages. If the renter refuses to pay then their home may find itself up for sale and they will also end up homeless.

We are trapped by a federal government whose policies are driving inflation and a central bank whose only tool to deal with inflation is increased interest rates. Someone needs to stop the cycle of madness before we all get hurt.

Richard Despres

Langford

Government is not protecting our interests

The death of 19-year-old firefighter Devyn Gale of Revelstoke is tragic and heartbreaking. I can only imagine her family’s grief.

Firefighters risk their lives to protect the rest of us. But is our government doing enough to protect them?

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ is experiencing extreme drought conditions, exacerbated by global warming.

The primary cause of global warming is the burning of fossil fuels, which emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

“We are hurtling towards disaster, eyes wide open,” said Antonio Guterres (United Nations Secretary-General) in a speech last month calling for a phase-out of fossil fuels and an acceleration of the transition to a renewable energy economy.

Despite the UN’s stark warning, ­Premier David Eby’s NDP government plans to expand oil/gas production in our province. Adding fuel to the fire.

The actions of the NDP government are starting to look less and less like protection of public interests and more and more like negligence.

Karyn Woodland

Colwood

We have an obligation to protect ocean movement

Recent events that prevented goods from moving through the Port of Vancouver to the rest of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ demonstrated and emphasised sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s dependence on ocean-going trade.

Ninety per cent of the world’s trade moves on the world’s oceans. sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s economy floats on salt water.

Any circumstance whether on shore or at a distance that impedes the movement of goods will result in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ shutting down. An efficient, well-equipped team is required on and offshore.

On shore it is the port workers who toil not only for their families but on behalf of the entire country.

Offshore, members of the Royal ­Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force likewise need to be well equipped with efficient surface ships, submarines, and aircraft to join with like-minded nations to keep watch and maintain freedom of movement on the oceans of the world.

For instance, any geopolitical situation that closes one or more of the global ­maritime choke points such as the Straits of Malacca will quickly have the same affect as closing the Port of Vancouver.

Beyond diplomacy, the Royal Canadian Navy is the national asset to respond.

Gerald Pash

Victoria

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