Sometimes a child’s eyes is the best lens through which we can simplify complex issues.

Take my youngest daughter, for instance. Yesterday, and unprovoked, she informed her Mom and I that she wanted a “lot” of ice cubes to put outside.

Why?

For the polar bears.

“Because their ice is melting and they are going to drown in the water”.

Nice, eh?

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

I thought I would put up a new post in response to this question posed by Doug Newton. This is a fair question that deserves some measure of response. Thanks for the question and thanks to Thorin as well.

Global warming / climate change – whatever. The important thing to note is that the Earth is undergoing some pretty dramatic changes as I write these words.

What more pressing ecological changes are there – aside from a change of a few degrees?

Absolutely none. Zero, Zilch. Why? Because every other environmental variable will change as a result of these few degrees.

And this is not a myth. We see it now in Ontario in the extreme weather patterns we have experienced the past few years. They are seeing it in the north as permafrost melts (read a story over the weekend about the booming biz in mammoth bones in Siberia as the frost melts and gives up its secrets!). It is being felt in Australia as massive brush fires are an annual occurrence. And they are seeing it in the SW United States as water is fast becoming a scarce commodity.

Which brings me to another point relating to the geopolitical and economic ramifications of climate change. As the weather patterns continue to shift and water and food supplies are impacted, it makes sense that sooner or later some of these impacted nations are going to get desperate.

One of the nations is Ontario’s – and Canada’s – neighbour to the south. And as someone stated in a presentation given to a group of us in Moncton last week, when the desperation kicks in, Canada has a great big target right in the middle of its forehead.

Yes, there are more issues in the Ontario election aside from global warming (duplication in the education systems, for example), but the climate crisis trumps all.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario