Who am I to disagree?

I cannot believe the garbage Roger von Dach spewed in his letter to the editor. He starts off stating that most people don’t know what they are talking about – and I couldn’t agree more, starting with him.

Firstly, resorting to name calling and sexist putdowns weakens his argument and brings into question someone’s impartiality. Referring to a minister of the Crown as “Climate Barbie” is shameful, and I sure hope he doesn’t have any female children or grandchildren that have to be subjected to remarks like that.

Secondly, of course CO2 is warming the atmosphere. Just use Google and look at scientific, peer-reviewed material, and he would see there is a scientific consensus that human activity is accelerating climate change. A rational person cannot honestly believe every climate scientist, every scientific body and every teacher at every university are all conspiring together to take your money or bring about a new world order. 

He states we could live with a lot more, but not a lot less. He couldn’t be further from the truth. 

We see every year the impacts of global warming – droughts, forest fires, and flooding happening simultaneously. The scientific consensus is crystal clear on this issue; a 2-degree Celsius increase in median temperature would be catastrophic to life on this planet. Life ending. 

Not to mention his asinine assertion that nature is sentient and can erupt volcanoes at will. 

Yes, Canada’s carbon footprint is slightly less than two per cent of the world footprint, but that doesn’t absolve us of our responsibility. Canada always steps up, and this is no different. How can we be viewed as a leader on the world stage when we refuse to pull our own weight when it comes to reducing our carbon output? 

We have an obligation to take this seriously, and it’s great to see young Canadians taking the lead. For too long our parents and grandparents have treated this planet with contempt, and it is a breath of fresh air to see our youth standing up for our future. It's shameful Roger refuses to do the same, thankfully he’s in the minority.

The cold, hard truth is climate change is real. People who are smarter, more intelligent and more educated than me believe this is the truth. Who am I, with no education in the subject matter, to disagree?

Ben Reiner