Support Clarke’s call for less fossil fuel use

Re: It’s time to phase out gas-fired electric power plants in Ontario, Jan. 11

As forests burn in California, British Columbia and Ontario; as glaciers around the world shrink; as drought spreads in East Africa, killing wildlife and livestock, and threatening the human population with starvation; as hurricanes grow more violent; and the seas rise, it’s getting harder to deny the Earth is warming.

Outright climate change denial is on the decline, though like a lot of other wacky or just plain sinister ideas, it is still clung to by an obstinate, or perhaps deeply self-interested, few.

More common now are shifting blame and responsibility to someone else (“We only produce a tiny percentage of emissions. It’s the Chinese, the Americans and the Indians who need to act.”) and defeatism (“It’s too late to stop warming. We just need to adapt.”).

It is a form of defeatism that seems to lie behind Ontario’s drift toward more fossil fuel use and higher emissions from electricity generation.

The fact is there is only one real answer to global warming: good public policy. In Ontario, right now, the answer to the “what can I do” question is simple: put pressure on the provincial government now to reverse its policy of using more natural gas to produce electricity.

Coun. Henry Clarke has asked council to pass a resolution calling for the end of fossil fuel use in Ontario’s power generation system. He deserves our wholehearted support.

Call or email your councillors and the mayor, and tell them you favour this resolution. While you are at it, you might drop a line to your MPP, and let him know how you feel.

You can also make your voice heard — and you should — in June, at the ballot box.

Mark Bullock, Valleyview Drive