Dear Premier David Eby,
Thank you for coming to Nelson to speak at the town hall organized by our MLA Brittny Anderson, and thank you and your government for the myriad social justice and environmental improvements you have made so far.
I am increasingly anxious and scared by the extreme heat and smoke we are experiencing each summer. I used to enjoy the summer, now I worry about it. The thunder and lightning storms that filled me with curiosity in the past I now meet with anxiety, terrified that this could be the start of a fire here in Nelson or elsewhere. The detrimental health effects on humans and the planet of the extreme heat and smoke is well documented.
The question I was delighted to have the opportunity to ask you at the town hall but that you did not answer effectively was: “Why do you on the one hand work hard to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and on the other hand continue to support the expansion of fossil fuel industry infrastructure ?”
The latter defeats the efforts of the former. It’s the elephant in the room and a page from the tobacco company handbook. Governments allowed companies to profit from promoting a product the companies knew was detrimental to human health. Meanwhile, healthcare providers treated people with serious illness from smoking. Finally governments regulated tobacco advertising and usage, smoking rates decreased enormously and the health of people improved.
This has yet to happen in the fossil fuel industry. It makes no sense to allow the industry to expand its infrastructure (pipelines, LNG ports, expansion of fracked methane wells) for the future while only putting the focus on decreasing GHG emissions. It’s contradictory and confusing.
I urge the government to stop subsidizing fossil fuel companies, to stop allowing proliferation of oil and gas infrastructure, and to sign onto the Fossil Fuel non-proliferation treaty.
Judith Fearing
Nelson
