To the Editor,
Re: Activists creating false fear, Letter, June 12
Gary Seinen’s recent letter confirms our local Science Deniers suffer from a terrible green headache called “failed catastrophe syndrome,” so they want us not to worry about the climate emergency. If perchance a catastrophe drops by to prove them wrong, it had better be precisely on time and exactly as awful as predicted, else it’s mongering false fears. Gary is a devotee of free-market capitalism and fossil fuels, so let’s hear from a few top shelf capitalists.
Jeremy Grantham oversees BMO, a 100 billion dollar asset management firm. He calls the climate emergency “the Race of Our Lives.” Bill Gates is another well-respected, all-round capital guy and the world’s second-richest person. His May 14 blog, “A critical step to reduce climate change,” is a great overview from the eternal optimist tech geek who always believes human ingenuity married to new tech capitalism can save the world. Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England (and formerly, of Canada’s) has co-written an open letter calling the emergency “unprecedented, urgent and analytically difficult” to resolve. Recently the CEO of the world’s largest insurer, Munich REI, called for dramatically higher costs for carbon emissions because climate change will cause “extreme” human misery, not to mention is already crushing their profits. Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, worth over one trillion dollars and the world’s largest, just announced it will dump fossil fuel investments in favour of renewables.
So the smartest, wealthiest capitalists are aligning with radical green leftists to accept climate science and the emergency. Not so Gary and the Deniers. Why worry when “5,000 feet of ice didn’t kill off humanity.” Anyone underneath that much ice was real dead, although there were a few live humans huddled beyond the glaciers, shivering in caves and grunting their woes. Won’t it be swell to get back to the simple life!
Calling Sweden’s teenage Greta Thunberg’s attempts to motivate adults a “tragic story” is derogatory and childish. I hope my granddaughters grow up to venerate bright young Greta as a heroine for her composure and courage in the face of all the dismissive, ignorant pushback. I hope the kids will be alright but we’ve got to give them a fighting chance.
Wayne DeLuca,
Port Alberni