Dear Editor:
RE: Logic out the window, Aug. 10.
Compared to global emissions, each person’s emissions are insignificant, yet if each of us tells the rest of the world to cut their emissions while we do nothing, that’s irresponsible.
In 2018, my personal footprint (car, electricity, heating) was 7.6 tonnes CO2. Since then, I have reduced my footprint to under 1.6 tonnes. Despite the capital cost, I have done that because I knew the cost to my wallet and to the environment of burning fossil fuels was only going to increase, and because I wanted to do what I could to leave a livable world for my grandkids.Despite his arguments, I hope Peter Mandic is also doing as much as he can to reduce his use of fossil fuels.
Jim Skea, head of the IPCC, said a rise of 1.5 C does not imply an existential threat to humanity, but he went on to say that surpassing that mark would lead to many problems, social tensions, and a more dangerous world. He also said we need to expand renewable electricity to reduce emissions from fossil fuel electricity generation and from internal combustion engine vehicles.
Mr. Mandic says sequestering carbon is expensive. That is true if we pay the fossil fuel industry to find ways of sequestering carbon, but if we help farmers to transition to improving soil health, the carbon will be sequestered beneficially in the soil with lower costs and more profit for the farmers and healthier food for us.
Mandic points out that the number of acres burned by forest fires fluctuates and that one bad year is not a trend. I hope he is right, however the trends of increasing global temperatures and heat trapping greenhouse gases (including water vapour) suggest otherwise.
Ron Moore,
Hillsburgh