Dear Editor,
Climate change isn’t some distant risk to our grandchildren.
It’s been affecting us since pine beetles destroyed a forest the size of Sweden, which cost $43 billion in lost lumber, $10.2 billion in lost stumpage fees, 27,000 direct jobs, and hundreds of millions of dollars for B.C.’s Pine Beetle Action Plan.
The cause of this is climate change that’s being driven by an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion leading to milder winters and hotter drier summers.
Climate change increased the frequency and severity of B.C.’s wildfires.
In 2018, wildfires burned 1.2 million hectares, cost $568 million in fire suppression, and displaced 65,000 people.
Climate change doesn’t just affect forest diseases, insects, and wildfires; it plays a role in issues such as melting glaciers and warming fish-bearing waters.
These expenses are the taxes we’re already paying in B.C. for the carbon we’ve dumped into the atmosphere.
We need climate action now to cut the cost of climate change.
Robert Macrae,
Environmental
Technology
Instructor