Dear Editor:
RE: Fear-filled letters, Aug. 24.
Jane Vandervliet, in her push-back against “fear-filled letters,” unfortunately left behind some basic principles of fact and of logic.
She admits that “Canada has a lot of forest fires this year,” but places the blame on arson and lightning. In fact, there are more fires than at any other time in the past – many are still burning as I type this message – and the number and intensity of the fires may result from changing rainfall patterns and changing air currents. The impact of this fiasco? “We must pay more and more taxes to stop it.”
And since she’s on the subject of taxes, what about the gigantic subsidy for electric battery manufacturers? Well, obviously, that too is a waste of her tax dollar (hard-earned, I presume). Why? Because 800 years ago the little ice age ended and the world started to warm up. And we are simply part of that recurring cycle, so “what’s to fear?”
According to Jane, nothing to fear. Brace yourself for this roll-out of logical heavyweights. CO2 is a natural element used in the intricate web of life (can there be too much of it? She doesn’t say).
“And cold weather kills more people than hot weather does.” I paused long enough to Google this assertion and found conflicting stats. In Canada about 80 people die of over-exposure to cold while over 600 were claimed as victims of excessive heat.
And those pesky “so-called experts at the UN” who claim the Earth is “boiling?” Jane’s solution is stunning in its simplicity: follow her into her garden, note the unripe tomatoes, and conclude that there is no such thing as global warming!
I am truly flummoxed at the tunnel vision displayed in this letter, not to mention its other blatant faults. As we argue in Ontario, more bodies are being recovered in Greece; the temperature of the Atlantic Ocean is so high that forecasts about the upcoming hurricane season are being revised upward; bodies are still being recovered in Hawaii; Europe recorded its warmest summer on record; our west coast is still sweltering and burning; and on and on.
I don’t expect Jane to convert suddenly to a card-carrying liberal (small or big L), but I do ask that she take the time to carry her arguments/assertions to their logical end. The conclusions may surprise her.
Richard Giles,
Mapleton