To the Editor,
Re: Weather, climate trends are different beasts, Letter, July 10
I must write in response to Mr. Krossa’s letter of July 10 as it is very misleading. The letter stated: “Past levels in the 2000-4000 ppm range did not result in catastrophe for life.”
As a Workplace Health and Safety representative for my union, I am familiar with air quality standards.
The National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety lists five minute exposure guidelines for CO2 at 5000 ppm for enclosed areas. If you were sitting in an office with CO2 levels of 2000 ppm, you’d probably feel a little tired, or short of breath. You wouldn’t feel normal.
It was also stated that the Earth has spent most of its existence ice-free, ignoring the implications for sea levels, and the millions, if not billions, of people that would be killed and displaced if the world’s ice caps melted completely.
There is a pattern of deception here with stating some facts while omitting other very crucial ones.
CO2 is normally around 350 ppm outdoors and, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (scripps.ucsd.edu), atmospheric levels have just crossed 400 ppm. Pieter Tans, senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Global Monitoring Division, said in a press release on June 4: “Many proposals have been made to mitigate global warming, but without a rapid decrease of CO2 emissions from fossil fuels they are pretty much futile.”
I beg the reader to read critically and deeply and to demand immediate action from all levels of leadership. The climate emergency we find ourselves in due to rising CO2 levels from our industry demands it. We have amazing, beneficial solutions at our fingertips that would employ and benefit millions and make our world a more wonderful place, if only we take the issue seriously.
Chris Alemany,
Port Alberni