Dear Editor:
For the past 20 months, the world has faced an unprecedented and deadly crisis, namely the COVID-19 pandemic.
Governments urgently worked together with scientists and medical experts to fast-track appropriate health measures, and then funded the rapid development of vaccines to attack the problem head on.
During that time, another crisis was barely mentioned – the ongoing but ultimately just as or even deadlier, climate emergency. We have already witnessed the catastrophic effects from unprecedented heat domes, raging wildfires, flash floods and record hurricanes.
While the COVID pandemic has already killed over 5 million people, the climate crisis has the potential to make our planet uninhabitable, threatening all of humankind.
We need all governments to cooperate to solve the climate emergency before it is too late.
Citizens Climate Lobby members in Wellington-Halton Hills collected over 100 signatures on a petition to request that all parties in parliament urgently work together within the first 100 days of the new session to:
1) commit to Canada’s fair share of cutting at least 60 per cent of domestic emissions from 2005 levels by 2030;
2) establish a concrete plan to end fossil fuel subsidies and stop all new fossil fuel expansions;
3) restart the Just Transition consultation and pass this legislation as soon as possible.
Our MP Michael Chong has agreed to table our petition once the House of Commons is back in session.
We implore all federal parties in Ottawa to set aside partisan politics, combine forces with the utmost urgency, and implement the already available solutions needed to address this ongoing threat to humanity’s survival.
Gordon Cumming.
Georgetown