8.5 years for a 2-out-of-3 chance

 In Letters, Opinion

Editor:
Thank you for including Basil Guinane’s letter last week letting us know of his experience at the Collingwood Climate Strike which many Creemore and Clearview children and adults attended. I understand that the Collingwood organizers were hoping 100 people would show up – over 700 attended! My family and I attended the Climate March in Montreal which was breathtaking for its scale, the diversity of ages, ethnicities and physical abilities, and more than anything else, the incredibly positive impression that people want, and plan to make, a change for the betterment of humanity, our home and the future. (For the naysayers, every km there and back was zero emissions.) The Montreal organizers were hoping for a turnout of 300,000 – matching the magnitude of the largest climate strike in history (New York City in 2014). The CBC reported that attendance topped 500,000 – half a million people – think of our Simcoe-Grey riding’s total population and multiply it by close to a factor of four. Across Canada it is estimate that 1 million people participated in climate strikes in at least 85 cities and towns. Around the globe the Sept. 20-27 climate strike saw over 7.6 million people in 185 countries take to the streets to demand immediate action in addressing the climate crisis.
So what is all the fuss about? It comes down to this: There is a limit to how much carbon our atmosphere can handle before it has an irreversible impact on our planet’s climate. So like many other things in life, we have a budget, and once you blow through the budget life can get a out of hand… in the case of our carbon budget, the impacts are quite frankly frightening for all of us. You may think this may not affect you that much (depending on your age) but it is sure to make life on this planet much, much more challenging for our children and future generations.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a non-partisan body of the world’s leading scientists funded by 195 countries worldwide including Canada. A 1.5 C global temperature rise is the well acknowledged tipping point after which our climate will continue to degrade no matter what humans do.
The IPCC conservatively calculated we have a 67 per cent chance (the best odds they can provide) of staying below this tipping point if the world’s emissions do not exceed January 2018’s CO2 budget of 420 gigatonnes. Less than year later this budget has already been reduced to less than 350 gigatonnes. At this current rate of emissions our planet’s carbon budget will be totally expended in less than eight-and-a-half years, and I doubt there are many that think it possible for the entirety of humanity to be zero-carbon emitting by 2028. This means that we really do need to start acting right away to extend that timeline to zero-emissions. Please take the time to understand the impacts of climate change (which our economy, agriculture, health, safety, and peace are all founded on) and what the climate platforms are of each political party before you vote. I truly believe this is the most important issue.
Jim Campbell,
Duntroon.

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