OLD LARRY LETTERS

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AUG 2019


Dear Yellowheadians, 

Earlier this summer, in a letter in the Crossroads, I complained about a huge multi-million dollar roadbuilding project on Highway 21, south of Shoal Lake. While I wasn't crazy about the noise or the violation of my personal space, that's not why I'm writing this. 


Here’s why.


The United Nations warned some time ago that the construction sector needs to cut back on its huge carbon footprint “yesterday” if we are to meet our obligations under the Paris Climate Accord. Yet, either out of ignorance, apathy or downright defiance, a steady stream of diesel trucks rumbled through Shoal Lake for weeks, from dawn to dusk, right past my living room window. 


Scant months ago, the Parks and Wilderness Society reminded us that world biodiversity (the variety of plant and animal life on Earth) is declining faster now than at any other time in human history. Yet that did not stop the trucks from making hundreds of round trips a day, hauling copious loads of gravel from a mine which has, for years, been transforming a beautiful stretch of the Birdtail Valley west of here, into an ugly hub of commerce.


Yet my letter was met with a deafening silence. Why? I have no idea. But one very disturbing possibility has come to mind since. Could it be that many simply do not believe that climate change is real; that we humans are behind it; or that its consequences are already widespread, deadly and getting worse? 


A study by UBC seems to raise the chilling possibility that this is, indeed, the case. It finds that school curricula in at least a few places in Canada, including Manitoba, present the science as not being settled yet!  It pains me to say this, but - if this is what is being taught - it's a lie! The science is settled! There’s an overwhelming and longstanding consensus among the world’s top climatologists. We humans are altering the nature of our atmosphere by the amount of fossil fuels we're burning. This is trapping heat close to the earth’s surface. And, if we do nothing, the only home we have could morph into a place that’s not just inhospitable, but downright deadly, even for the healthiest among us! Ironically, the month just past, when the road construction was at its peak, was globally, the warmest July on the human record!


So, would Planet Earth have been spared from a worst-case scenario had my "least favourite" road project not gone ahead? Of course not! But are we doomed to that worst-case scenario if every community in the world barges ahead with “business as usual,” as mine, sadly, is doing?  Absolutely!


Larry Powell

Shoal Lake, MB.

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