Letter to the Editor
Editor,
I think it was Dr. James Hansen (formerly of NASA, and a real Climate Scientist) that covered China and India best. He pointed out that Carbon Dioxide spends 100 years in the atmosphere – on average. That as recently as ten years ago Canada was #4 on the list of all time emitters – total emissions. Out of every country in the world. And that China would need to keep pumping CO2 into the atmosphere at the same rate for 30 years (now 20) if it even hoped to catch up to the biggest contributors to the problem – the USA, Great Britain, Germany, and to pass #4, Canada. India was going to need 40 years if I recall the chart correctly.
I also think it was Hansen who compared those who actually believe countries like Canada aren’t obligated to do their part (plus some) to fix climate change before it is too late to parents who come home to find the four oldest kids have trashed every single room in the house, yet somehow decide the best way to handle the problem is to yell at the youngest child for not putting his dishes in the dishwasher.
I haven’t checked the math personally, but I saw a comment in the Globe and Mail last week that said with 1.6% of global carbon dioxide emissions and our tiny percentage of the world population, Canadians contribute about 450 times as much – per person – as the average Planet Earth inhabitant.
Climate Change Deniers and local Meaford politicians who insist we must focus exclusively on this precise moment of time as far as emissions go, and demand we ignore the reality of population differences, are not worth hearing from or listening to.
Bruce Mason, Meaford
