Letters, April 1

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/04/2023 (958 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Province must reduce emissions

Re: Climate crisis key issue in upcoming election (March 28)

I appreciate the Free Press editorial board elevating the pressing issue of climate change, along with many actions Manitoba can take to do our part. What needs to be added here is the essential need to embrace nature-based solutions, namely protecting natural ecosystems.

Manitoba’s forests, grasslands, wetlands and ocean are part of the climate change solution. These ecosystems help to mitigate the impacts of climate change by absorbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are two of the biggest global crises. Both are caused by activities such as industrial logging, mining, and oil and gas exploration. Each crisis also exacerbates the other, with climate change causing populations and entire species to go extinct, and the loss of biodiversity making ecosystems more vulnerable to climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that a 1.5 C increase in the global average temperature will put 20-30 per cent of the world’s species at risk of extinction. Canada has already experienced a 1.7 C increase in temperature since 1948 — twice the global average. We must significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, while protecting nature’s capacity to absorb them, in order to prevent a further increase in temperature and avoid the environmental changes that would come with it.

Canadian governments at all levels have pledged to both reduce emissions causing climate change and step up measures to conserve biodiversity. Canada has promised to protect 30 per cent of our land, inland waters and oceans by 2030. It would be assuring if all political parties leading up to the provincial election committed us to doing our part by matching this target here in Manitoba.

Ron Thiessen

Executive Director, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society — Manitoba chapter

Winnipeg

As the world burns

Re: What on Earth is to become of humankind? (March 29)

John Crisp’s excellent opinion piece put into words the real situation we are in and the difficult, but necessary, decisions that need to be made.

There’s a lot of talk these days about global warming, summits collaborating for solutions, countries espousing their ingenious ideas and then, just this week, our federal government presents a plan to green Canada’s electricity supply. It’s ludicrous and irresponsible to hear “nuclear” in the same sentence as “clean energy.”

Have Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan and the 1979 meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania not been examples enough to avoid building more reactors?

As if terrorist attacks, war, natural disasters and calamities aren’t enough, what do we do with the growing stockpiles of spent uranium that is radioactive for thousands of years?

Crisp writes, “Travelling a sustainable middle path would require profound modifications in our behaviour. We would have to be satisfied with less. We would have to fly less or not at all. We might have to sacrifice the freedom and comfort of a personal automobile. We might have to live in smaller houses.

“In order to preserve humanity, would we be willing to have fewer children and dispense with the pleasures produced by an economy that depends on continuing growth? Could we live without kiwis and tomatoes in the dead of winter?“

Yes! Finally someone is speaking the truth! I would also add to that the need for society to transition to a plant-based diet rather than meat production that is both innately cruel and a huge contributor to global warming.

Can common sense not prevail here — or are we doomed ?

Lois Taylor

Winnipeg

Critical course

Re: U of M program puts media literacy in spotlight (March 28)

Congratulations to the University of Manitoba for offering an extended education course online in critical-thinking skills to improve media literacy.

With the multiple media outlets today, critical-thinking skills should be taught at the high school level.

Everyone needs to know how to identify misinformation and how to source information.

June Kirby

Winnipeg

Ban-worthy?

In response to IOC details advice to let Russia, Belarus athletes return (March 29), since when do a country’s athletes set the foreign policies for those, or any, country? There is no reason as to why they all cannot participate in the Olympics, or any other international sporting event. The fact that they have served, or do serve, in its military is beside the point.

Let’s be honest: if these were governing factors, then no U.S. athlete would have been able to have participated in these international events since 1945. The U.S. invaded Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Grenada, Haiti, Syria.

It helped overthrow governments in Iran, Guatemala, Chile, Indonesia, Brazil, Nicaragua, Congo and Greece, and supported various counterinsurgencies in others.

In fact, Great Britain and Canada’s athletes would have been excluded from some international events.

Last week, the article Track stymies Russian path to Olympics due to war in Ukraine (March 23) highlighted that the World Athletics Council president, Sebastian Coe, is pushing for an ongoing ban from the Paris games.

Where was this great leader when the Americans were killing hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Iraq? Sorry, I forgot; today we are talking about Christians being killed. Coe and others were doing nothing, because, in effect, the Americans pay their salaries. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

I suppose next year we will hear about a Chinese ban from events.

Don Halligan

Winnipeg

Time to demand justice

I thank Dan Lett for his astute views on issues of huge consumer interest and, most recently, Settlement won’t rid city of police HQ stench (March 24).

I am disgusted on so many levels with the actions of the perpetrators of this huge theft of monies that come directly from us hard-taxed citizens of Winnipeg, specifically, and Manitoba overall.

How can city council allow this to happen? How can our premier dodge this reality? More importantly, how can Manitoba Justice remain so ineffective in the face of this most blatant insult to the legal standards to which we common citizens are made to abide?

Am I angry? Damn straight! We are too often told “it is cheaper to settle than to litigate.” This cop-out is self-defeating and only serves to empower similar illegal operations.

Oh, does that sound like the Winnipeg towing company under recent scrutiny? It bears asking why the city and the province bother with oversight and millions of dollars spent retaining legal council.

Prosecute these modern-day “Robbing Hoods” who steal from the poor and give to the rich! And in doing so, include the demand for restitution for costs and damages. Is it that they may go bankrupt that causes the city to settle out of court? So be it!

All we trusting taxpayers have are words. It is surely time to speak out to demand justice, which is assured by the laws to which most of us adhere.

Importantly, the rule of law is only as effective as it is perceived to be enforced.

Roméo Lemieux

Winnipeg