OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter was submitted by Gary Machan, a member of the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition.
I must say that I am nothing less than dumbfounded that the Premier of our province denied the link between climate change and hundreds of major early forest fires that enveloped many cities across the north east with record-breaking levels of highly toxic smoke, making their once vibrant streets look like ghost towns. Opting instead to pin the blame on lightning and campers? Are you kidding me?
Consider for a moment that according to all reputable scientific measures, forest fires are becoming more extreme and growing far worse. We are already six weeks ahead of the total carbon released by forest fires compared to last year, just as last year was ahead of the year prior to that, and so on down the line.
To date, Canada has lost 10.9 million acres of forest that drove 120,000 people from their homes this year alone, and the summer hasn’t even officially started.
Why? Because of the wild fluctuations in our weather patterns including either too much or too little rainfall over extended periods of time.
Moreover, climate experts are warning us that the east will no longer escape the infernos that have become all too common place in the west. Predicting warmer and drier conditions in the northern tiers of the United States, including the Great Lakes. Hence, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this will likely result in more forest fires.
None of which even touches upon the serious health risks that smoke from forest fires causes for people, and most especially, children, seniors, and other folks with immune-compromised systems. In fact, last week our family doctor recommended to many of his patients to stay indoors and advised them if they did have to go outside to be sure to wear a (medical) mask as a safety precaution.
Now, if there is one thing I agree with the Premier, it is that climate change should not be used for political purposes. Ideally, all political parties and levels of government should be collaborating on the best ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
There are, after all, a lot of precautionary measures that can be taken that are well worth the cost in purely monetary terms. Roughly one dollar allocated to prevention results in savings of five dollars in damage.
The trouble arises, however, when someone like Doug Ford, with all the power entrusted to him by the people of this province, continues to deny the reality of climate change.
And so, what are we to do when your premier is a lost cause? Short answer: there is nothing stopping our municipalities, health unit and federal government from following the leadership of other jurisdictions that are ahead of us in dealing with extreme weather events, most notably out west.
It begins with educating people of all ages about what to do (or not to do) in the event of climate extremes, organizing specialized training for first responders be it firefighters and/or paramedics, creating special insurance funds for communities and homeowners, edging (i.e. increasing space between communities and forests), assigning places to serve as cooling stations and water supply.
Bottom line, if we are wise, we would regard the smoke from last week as a cue to take climate change seriously, even if we are saddled with a Premier who judging by the significant drops in the popularity of his party is unlikely to be reelected due to his breaking his word about protecting the Greenbelt, deepening the pockets of billionaire developers at the expense of everyday homeowners with his ‘Sprawl Is Us” agenda, and now this.
Gary Machan
Oro-Medonte
