The main reasons we need to reduce our carbon emissions are pretty much the same as before, but now the consequences are much more present and extreme.
Basically our excessive use of fossil fuels has created a blanket of pollution that is causing the planet, land and oceans to overheat. There is complete scientific consensus on this matter.
This is causing more extreme wildfires, heat waves, crop failures, floods and food insecurity. The economic damage is approximately six times greater than previously estimated.
Four of BC’s most severe wildfires of the last 100 years have occurred in the last seven years. The 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive in recorded history, burning 2.8 million hectares of forest.
The cost of wildfire suppression to taxpayers was more than $1 billion. Compare that to profits made by fossil fuel companies at our expense.
In 2023, global records were broken for surface temperatures, ocean heating and acidification, sea level rise, lack of polar ice cover, floods and glacial retreat. Scientists are worried about what are known as tipping points, at which conditions become irreversible, such as ocean current slowing and/or direction change, and the increased release of methane from the permafrost.
The cost to us all will be in the trillions of dollars if urgent action is not taken.
In 2021, extreme weather cost BC’s economy between $10 billion and $17 billion, lost worker income, lost productivity and community impacts. By 2050, the annual damage could well reach $3 trillion globally.
LNG is not a bridging fuel to a clean energy future. All factors considered, it is worse than coal. LNG is just another name for methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Leakages during processing and shipping, for example, in pipelines, give it a total footprint greater than burning coal, not to mention the energy required to liquefy it.
We need to move more quickly into cleaner forms of transportation and shipping. Progress is definitely being made but there is huge concern that the speed of transition is minimizing effectiveness.
Our buildings need energy efficient renovations, new buildings need passive design and fossil fuel appliances need to be replaced by electric models such as heat pumps.
The cost of renewable energy has fallen rapidly and that ought to be taken advantage of as much as possible. It is estimated that if Canada operated on 100 per cent clean energy, the average household bills would be reduced by 12 per cent. Any decline in fossil fuel employment would be more than offset by newly created jobs in clean energy.
The use of a tax on carbon is not new; it is a tried and true method used around the world to encourage the transition to clean energy. Economists completely support the statistics surrounding the use of a carbon tax and in Canada it has fallen out of favour primarily due to negative political disinformation, not the facts.
Climate change is a global phenomenon, and yes, it requires a global solution. That is why we must all do our part for the future of our families, and all living things for that matter.
William Lytle-McGhee is a member of qathet Climate Alliance.
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