Re: “We can’t do much to limit climate change,” letter, April 17.

Canada can do a great deal to limit climate change. A letter writer says we can do little but fails to take into account that Canada is a major exporter of fossil fuels.

We are the fourth largest exporter of crude oil and the seventh largest exporter of natural gas.

B.C.’s largest energy export is metallurgical coal. In fact, coal is the province’s top export overall, making up a significant portion of our foreign sales. And where is all that LNG we are producing going?

All of these exported fuels produce greenhouse gases. So, there is much we can do to reduce global emissions.

Garry Curtis

Oak Bay

Re: “We can’t do much to limit climate change,” letter, April 17.

The writer drags out the old chestnut that Canada, with a small population, cannot possibly produce a measurable reduction in the world greenhouse gas emissions.

That is not the point. We are a wealthy country and have produced by capita, an inordinate amount of pollution.

As a country we are climate laggards. We must set an example to other rich countries to follow if we are to provide a liveable climate for our descendants.

Vic Brice

Nanaimo

Climate change is real, dangerous and accelerating. The oceans are no longer buffering the effects of our continued production of greenhouse gases, mainly from fossil fuels.

Tipping points to “runaway climate change,” like permafrost thaw, are underway.

I have attended international scientific conferences on climate change and have met anxious scientists in person. According to scientists from the UN IPCC, climate change is a critical emergency. The endgame is an uninhabitable planet.

Remember those massive wildfires, violent hurricanes and tornadoes, floods, mudslides and avalanches. The increasing occurrence is due to climate change. This is basic, certain, international science.

The Conservative Party’s denial of climate change and plan to accelerate fossil fuel use is insane. Any other party is a better choice. The Green Party has the most ideal platform.

The old way of “doing business” no longer works. There will be great-paying jobs to replace the old jobs, jobs that “save the world” in a transforming society: preserving and restoring nature, developing new types of energy supply and a new energy grid, constructing and renovating buildings, building new infrastructure, and so on.

We need governments that tax well, and tax the wealthy to build cohesive community strength to handle the coming future well, not the Conservatives that plan to reduce taxes and weaken society.

Trust the change!

Catherine Slater

Quadra Island

Re: “Canada is quite OK, unlike our neighbour,” letter, April 16.

No, Canada is not quite OK! Over the past nine years Canada’s economy only achieved GDP growth of 0.5 per cent compared to 21 per cent for the U.S.

Most of the developing countries achieved in the order of 10 times that achieved by Canada. A half a trillion dollars of investment funds left Canada for the U.S. or other countries during this period.

Canada’s national debt doubled and now the interest payments........

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