Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Outbreak of climate sanity in BC?

Test driving a car to replace our ageing wagon this afternoon I was startled to hear about the proposed axeing of the BC and proposed federal 'Carbon tax'. Has an outbreak of climate sanity broken out? What's going on? Are the politicians actually listening to the electorate?

I know 2.4 cents a litre doesn't sound much, but when speculators have driven the price of oil up to record highs, that little extra tends to be the proverbial straw that breaks the camels back. Let me expand; over here on Vancouver Island public transport is limited to buses and trains, and outside the towns there aren't much of them. The last train service from Victoria and Nanaimo to Port Alberni is now two unused rusting iron rails on rotting sleepers and a four(?) times daily bus service to Uclulet and Tofino. You could of course cycle, but not everyone lives within reasonable cycle commuting distance of their work, and there are only two rail passenger services a day up and down the whole island, and from what I've seen, these run half empty most of the time. People need cars to get about, there is no practical alternative, at least on Vancouver Island, which has a similar land area in square miles to the whole of England.

What amazed me was hearing that a politician didn't think that tax was the right way to address climate change. I agree, it's like writing cheques to ward off a cold. You're going to get the cold anyway, whether you pay the money or not. The Earth will heat and cool following it's own complex rules and there's bugger all we two legged pests can do about it. We should embrace the challenges, not run around like a bunch of headless chickens, throwing money at a problem (If Earths constantly changing climate is not an opportunity) that money just can't solve.

What we can do for the environment is not to throw away quite so much so carelessly, and not over use the resources we have. Enforce the fishing restrictions so that fish stocks get to recover. Not poison the earth and water so that we can grow food to provision the ever growing multitude of humanity on this little blue green world.

It will get cold enough soon if what some in the scientific community are saying comes true. Notwithstanding, my money is on another climate reversal in the next twenty or thirty years years and it will warm up after a brief cooling. I hope, or we're all in for a really hard time.

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