Dear Editor:
At this time last year we were firmly into life with Covid-19.
A burning concern of many was how unprepared our federal and provincial governments were for what was happening.
We both lamented and criticized the lack of long term foresight and planning.
One year later and far from out of the woods, we expect our governments to implement those measures necessary to avoid being caught with our pants down “next time” faced with such a crisis.
We yearn for a return to the good old days.
While this is quite understandable, believing that such will happen without properly investing and planning to deal with the very real “existential threat” to the survival of our species that “human caused climate change” is bestowing upon us is little more than shortsighted and ill informed naivety.
The IPCC has made it very clear that our failure to implement the needed systemic social and economic infrastructure changes that are needed by the end of this decade to give us a chance of avoiding the no returning from tipping points and making to a Zero-Emissions 2050 reality today’s youth must have to avoid the worst of the helter-skelter, dead-ended future they will be living.
I fear that unless we today demand our governments give us a transparent ten year plan as to what will be done to get us where our Paris Accord commitments said we will be in 2030, all we are really doing is leaving today’s children remembering 2020-2021 as their “good old days” and asking themselves why our governments (aka WE) did not plan and act in a manner that addressed their future needs and not simply our immediate wants.
Gary Champagne, Ottawa
