Get out of the way of people like Greta Thunberg
By Letter to the Editor on November 4, 2019.
Re: “Clugston not interested in invite to Thunberg,” Oct. 16, Mayor Ted Clugston has stated “I’m tired of people calling carbon dioxide pollution; it’s a basic building block of life…. This needs to be dealt with intelligently and is in no way an emergency.” We are also told the mayor has a university degree in biology. A higher education in science has equipped the mayor to understand the scientific method. He can do experiments to test hypotheses to try to either confirm or reject those hypotheses. I respectfully request that, in an attempt to defend his statement quoted above, the mayor participate in three simple experiments, and that he write a letter to the editor telling us the results. If you agree with the mayor’s statement, above, do the experiments. Firstly, double the blankets on your bed. Add blankets of the same thermal resistance as those you now use. The actual number of blankets is not important so long as the insulating value of the blankets doubles. Do this every night for a week. Sleep tight and sweet dreams! Secondly, take your car to a gas station and inflate one tire to two times the recommended inflation. If you do not observe immediate results just drive for a while and results will be apparent. Actually, please do not do this because either you or someone else will be injured. Thirdly, experiment by drinking 50 large glasses of water each day, for seven consecutive days. Actually, please don’t do this because you will die. No human can survive more than about seven days without water which is, to use the mayor’s words, “a basic building block of life…”, but drinking too much water leads to water intoxication, which is fatal. The mayor’s statement, quoted above, contains one scientific fact. As such, it can neither logically nor scientifically be used to refute the large mass of scientific evidence which exists proving human-caused climate change. His statement that carbon dioxide is a building block of life is merely descriptive. It therefore can not disprove that the human-caused and increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmospheric system is a problem. That rising concentration is a problem, however, and that must be true because, if it is not, Mayor Clugston will feel the same and will sleep just as well as he otherwise does during his forthcoming week of double blankets, his car tire will not explode in his face, and he will not die from water intoxication. The principle here is that there absolutely can be too much of a good thing. If you can’t bring yourself to admit that, do the experiments. The emergency which the mayor denies truly does exist, and not from carbon dioxide in and of itself, but from humankind pumping increasing amounts of it into our finite atmosphere. That is pollution. Many people who do not have university degrees in science understand this issue. In the same article containing the mayor’s quote, above, he says “I’ll listen to qualified scientists.” That shows an internal contradiction in his position. Hundreds of “qualified scientists” have, for a few decades been proving that the mayor’s statement, above, does not prove what he thinks it proves. We’re back to: Either lead, follow, or get out of the way. Please, Mr. Mayor, and with no disrespect intended, get out of the way, take with you those who either can only or will only deny and obfuscate. Get out of the way of people like Greta Thunberg. Gregory R. Côté Irvine, Alta. 11-10
When my senior friends and I encounter people with this idea that Carbon Dioxide isn’t a pollutant we suggest they put a bag over their head and see how fast this building block of life kills them. The fact is when you create more that what the planet’s plants can absorb it becomes a pollutant, which is where we stand today. Why is that so hard for these people, especially seniors, to understand? Scientists have been saying for years that yes the planet is warming, and has been for thousands of years, however it’s warming a lot faster than it would be if humans weren’t here creating the pollution they’re creating. Is your mayor another senior who can’t understand this, or refuses to do so? How does he explain the fact that our oil executives fully supported the Carbon Tax and that since Jason Kenney killed it Norway has pulled it’s investments out of Alberta for that very reason, we are told, they know something must be done about our pollution problem. We think that it’s why Encana is pulling out also. How many more oil corporations will follow?
Rather than putting a paper bag over your head you need to put an elastic band around your head and snap out of it.
My son has sleep issues and a friend suggested I buy a weighted blanket for his bed. I read your letter and asked myself whether the the problem could be addressed by adding regular blankets to his bed each night. I experimented and the result was positive. Your experiment proves that more of something can sometimes be a good thing.
The Arctic was once inhabited by mammoths and mastodons but they froze and became extinct due to global cooling. Global warming will make the Arctic inhabitable again.