Dear Editor:
RE: “Hysteria on steroids”? (Aug. 11).
Climate change deniers are a lot like teenagers: they look but don’t see; they hear but they don’t listen.
Right now, France is on fire. Wildfires rage in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. According to the USDA Fire service, it used to be that fire season was only for certain months of the year in the western states. Now climate change has turned fire season into a year-round issue.
One thousand deaths in Portugal and 500 in Spain are linked to extremely high temperatures. The UK saw temperatures of more than 40C for the first time. This July, the Yukon and NWT experienced record-breaking temperatures.
Drought in the western U.S. has left Colorado’s largest reservoirs only a quarter full and is endangering food production, hydro generation and the water supply for 40 million people. Drought is causing similar consequences in China, Europe and Asia.
In Alberta and the NWT, thousands evacuated their homes because of floods. In the Sudan, floods affected 130,000. In Pakistan, monsoon rains and flooding left 700 dead and thousands displaced. A state of emergency was declared due to flash floods in West Virginia and Kentucky. There has been deadly flooding in West Germany and Belgium.
With more and more records being broken, this is climate change, not weather. Should we try to do something about it? Absolutely! The longer we wait, the more it will cost us.
Toronto350 presented a brief to U of T suggesting they should divest from fossil fuel stocks. U of T didn’t take the advice, but I did.
Between 2013 and 2014, I sold off all my fossil fuel stocks for about $75,000. Had I held onto those stocks, they would now be worth about $19,000. Listening to that advice saved me $56,000. Between 2014 and 2020, I switched to investing in wind and solar stocks. The cost of those investments was $21,000 and their current value is $73,000.
Failure to be proactive in addressing climate change is what may turn us into a Third World country.
Ron Moore,
Hillsburgh