I wish I had a violin, a white robe and an extra 100 pounds so I could have played at the Nelson candidate’s forum. (Legend has it that while a fire destroyed the city of Rome, the emperor Nero played his violin, thus revealing his total lack of concern for his people and his empire.)
Maybe this image came to me because I had recently sat and watched the EcoSociety’s Earth Day documentary movie How to Let Go of the World, which describes the dire situation on Planet Earth. Seems like we can’t throw off global warming by ignoring it and it’s ahead of schedule with polar ice caps melting, sea level rising, 0.8 degrees air temperature rise heading to 1.5 degrees soon. Even the two degree Celsius rise in temperature, that most countries have agreed too as an upper limit of global temperature rise, is too dangerous some would argue, as we don’t know what will happen and we are playing with possible catastrophe.
This is not meant to blame anyone. I appreciate that the Chamber of Commerce hosts the event and Glenn Hicks does a fine job in my opinion, but I left feeling afraid and sad and towards the end I felt like blurting out something. We were gathered to hear about our future well-being and nothing was said about something that could cause extreme suffering and loss in the not so distant future. Will we make it through this century? Please do your own research if you think I’m being dramatic.
The Liberal Party is pushing for fracking for LNG, and giving subsidies for LNG, flooding thousands of hectares of prime farmland for the Site C Dam, and building pipelines for bitumen. This will hasten global warming and seems suicidal, insane and irresponsible. I don’t blame people for voting however they choose, but I do want to make a clear request for everyone to consider voting for a party that commits to real action on climate change.
John Alton
Nelson