Sound Off

Sound Off: 2020

Jan 6, 2020 | 10:24 AM

2020. Will that give us a clearer vision of how to prepare for the next decade? As I write, the fires are raging in Australia. The worst fire season in memory and no sign of it lessening unless they receive at least 100 mm or 100 days of rain. Most areas have had no rain for more than a year. Their Prime Minister denies that this is due to climate change.

We are having huge amounts of precipitation here in British Columbia. Fortunately in the Central Interior, this is mostly in the form of snow. I am so glad to be living here rather than in Australia with their fires or Vancouver with all their rain. Here we are blessed with snow, which we can shovel in order to get around, then ski on it for recreation. No need to go to the gym when you can shovel snow for exercise. The weight of the wet snow on the lake pushed the ice down and water seeped up on top but now that it has cooled off again, this water has frozen and once again one can ski all over the lake. We have also put in our trails through the trees, which always provides an interesting adventure as you see which creatures have been travelling along the snow. The tracks show that a couple of moose walked along the shoreline, which is nice to see as their numbers have drastically reduced. This is deemed to most likely to be due to tick infestations. Another cause is the spraying of glyphosate on the willows and aspen, killing their natural food source.

We need a clear vision in 2020 to address the climate change issue. We are so late to the table but it is imperative that we all take this seriously and do our part in reducing our carbon footprint. I am proud to live in a Province that is way ahead of the curve in introducing a carbon tax while other Provinces are still squabbling about it. I am sad that Andrew Weaver is leaving as leader of the Provincial Greens but I am hopeful that youth will be well represented in the new caucus. Greta Thunberg has been an amazing ambassador for future generations with her impassioned speeches admonishing us for our lack of action on the climate file. Young people all over the World are now speaking up reminding us that it is their future that we are putting in jeopardy. We must do better.