Saskatchewan is embroiled in a legal challenge to the federal carbon tax being imposed on the province.
It’s no doubt going to be a lengthy fight, but one item lawyers made clear was that they weren’t challenging the concept of climate change, just the imposition of a carbon tax.
That’s something we all could take to heart. Because it really doesn’t matter whether you accept the reality of climate change or not, it’s hard to argue that reducing Canada’s carbon footprint, cleaning up industry or any of the ways we are coming to understand we need to protect our environment is a bad thing.
Since at least the 1960s — and probably before — environmentalists, ecologists and scientists have been warning us about the damage humans are doing to the natural world and the rate we are using up resources.
It’s time we stopped arguing about whether it is as bad as we are being told, and start agreeing that even if it were true that human-caused environmental impact is minimal, less is always better and none would be superb.
That said, the damage we have done is apparent all around the world. The garbage patches that are choking large areas of our oceans is one example that just can’t be denied.
Cutting back on the old ways can benefit our world in other ways. Manufacturers have found that modernizing their plants to reduce pollutants, waste and energy consumption can also carry the benefit of more efficient — more profitable — production.
Reducing reliance on coal and other fossil fuels for power doesn’t put people out of work, it creates more new jobs in the alternate energy sector.
So instead of trying to argue that a snowstorm proves climate change isn’t a reality — like one U.S. president who should be ashamed to be ignorant of the difference between climate and weather — let’s focus on what we can agree on; a cleaner world benefits us all.
— Black Press