COMMENT
A4
MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014
Celebrate, protect Earth April is Earth Month and April 22 is Earth Day. We should really celebrate our small blue planet and all it provides every day, but recent events give us particular cause to reflect on our home and how we’re treating it. Through an amazingly ordered combination of factors, this spinning ball of earth, air, fire and water — with its hydrological, carbon, nitrogen and rock cyDAVID cles, biological SUZUKI diversity and ideal distance from the sun — provides perfect conditions for human life to flourish. But with our vast and rapidly increasing numbers, breakneck technological advances, profligate use of resources and lack of concern for where we dump our wastes, we’re upsetting the balance. We’re a relatively new species, but we’re altering the geological properties of Earth to the extent that many scientists refer to this epoch as the Anthropocene — from the Greek an-
SCIENCE
thropos meaning “human” and kainos meaning “recent.” When Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared on March 8, crews in planes and boats set out to search the Indian Ocean. Debris sightings raised hopes that the crash site was located, but they turned out to be endless streams of garbage that humans have been dumping into the oceans for ages — plastic bottles and bags, fishing gear, household wastes, cigarette butts, detritus from shipping containers, even bits of space shuttle rocket boosters. We now have massive swirling garbage patches in our oceans, and thousands of birds and fish from remote seas turning up dead, their bellies full of plastic and flotsam. We’re also upsetting the delicate carbon cycle of the planet and its atmosphere, mostly through wasteful burning of fossil fuels. This, in turn, is shifting other natural processes, including the ways water circulates around the globe and climate and weather are regulated. For a disturbing illustration of the damage we’ve done and how much more we’ll do unless we change our ways, we need only look to the recent installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report. Findings show we’re already expe-
riencing the ever-increasing impacts of global warming: ice caps and Arctic sea ice melting and collapsing; more extreme weather-related events like droughts and floods; dying corals; stressed water supplies; rising, increasingly acidic oceans; and fish and other animals migrating with some going extinct. Unless we act quickly, our food and water supplies, critical infrastructure, security, health, economies and communities will face ever-escalating risks, leading to increased human displacement, migration and violent conflict. Some argue we must choose between “growing” the economy and protecting the planet. In response, the report states, “Throughout the 21st century, climate-change impacts are projected to slow down economic growth, make poverty reduction more difficult, further erode food security, and prolong existing and create new poverty traps, the latter particularly in urban areas and emerging hotspots of hunger.” That’s if we do little or nothing – which is not a viable option. We must reduce our individual impacts, but more importantly, we must tell industry and governments at all levels that we’ll no longer support the fouling of our planet and the madness of putting short-term economic growth ahead of
protecting everything that keeps us alive and healthy. We elect governments to act in our best interests, not to promote polluting industries at the expense of human health and long-term prosperity. One of our species’ unique abilities is foresight, the capacity to look ahead to avoid dangers and exploit opportunity. It’s time for our leaders to be visionary and steer away from hazards while taking the enormous opportunities offered by renewable energy sources. As I said in last week’s column, climate change is serious, and “Confronting it will take a radical change in the way we produce and consume energy – another industrial revolution, this time for clean energy, conservation and efficiency.” Meeting this challenge, through reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to changes we can no longer prevent, will offer myriad side benefits, from better health and lower health-care costs to greater economic opportunities through cleaner and longer-lasting technologies. There’s no excuse to keep on destroying our home. If we are to observe Earth Day and Earth Month, let’s make it a time to celebrate, not to despair. Scientist, author and broadcaster David Suzuki wrote this column with Ian Hanington. Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Putin will just keep marching An open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird: My grandparents came from the Ukraine and my parents were both born Canadians. My wife’s parents came from Germany, and met and married in Canada. My family is now fifth generation Canadian and on my wife’s side there are four generations of Canadians. I mention this just to show you that we are Canadians and not some kind of an ethnic Canadian. I have written to you in the past regarding the Ukraine and now I’m writing again. Not only for the Ukraine but also for all the other countries that were under forced domination and control by the former Soviet Union communist system. During this time of occupation by the Russians, the Russians put their elite communist people into those countries to control them. When communism fell apart, those elite group of communists were left behind and really don’t care to be Ukrainians, Latvians, Estonians or any other country the communists controlled. They still want to be Russians. These people don’t really belong in these countries as they are there without authority or permission to be in them. They should have the option of declaring allegiance to the country they are in or get shipped back to the Russian mainland. Now Ukraine proper. Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t have a land route to the Crimea and he wants one. His plan, in my opinion, is to stir up enough trouble in eastern Ukraine between the Ukrainian people and the Russian leftovers and to use that dispute to intervene militarily. He will use that dispute excuse to invade eastern Ukraine, where all the Russian communists are stating that he had to do it to restore peace, all the while using that excuse to get more territory for a land route to the Crimea. Can NATO and the free world not see what is happening or can they see but are too mesmerized or lack the fortitude to do anything about it? The situation in Ukraine will not improve and Russia will invade. Do we have the fortitude to stop it now or are we going to let it happen? Canadians don’t want another war and I’m sure that Europe doesn’t want another war but if we keep letting Putin get away with his antics, he will keep advancing, taking us for weak. Are we? Are we going to allow Putin another move, or two or three, before we put a stop to him? Are we going to allow him to take over Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia and other countries again? There are a lot of questions and likely no right answers but something has to be done because Putin won’t stop unless we stop him. He was, is and always will be a communist. That’s the mentality you have to deal with. Tom Skoreyko Red Deer
Dance off support was great I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to some exceptional community people. The Celebrity Dance Off cabinet is composed of a group of extraordinary community-minded people who invested a tremendous amount of time, energy, skills, personal sacrifice and enthusiasm in support of making a difference for children and youth in our community. The recent Celebrity Dance Off event was an overwhelming success in support of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Red Deer. Combine these people with some amazing celebrity dancers, volunteers and the numerous sponsors
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and supporters, this event was truly a community undertaking. It continues to remind me how fortunate we all are to live in a city with so many people who care and give of themselves to make a difference. All the combined efforts came together for a single evening of entertainment, fine dining, amazing dancing and sharing of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Red Deer 37 year legacy. This gala event represented a model partnership of how an agency can work together with a group of community leaders and so many other supporters to not only raise the needed dollars, but to also share the stories and impacts over generations in our community. Thank you to the 2014 Celebrity Dance Off cabinet for your vision, leadership, support and passion in support of our greatest investment — our children and youth. Thank you for Sharing the Magic. John Johnston Red Deer
We can improve democracy now Re: Dale Watson’s letter to the editor of April 7, titled, In search of true democracy: I agree we need to reform our system. However, proportional representation is not the answer as elites within the political parties still get to choose our representatives. We can take action now to improve government responsiveness by simply adopting a new method for selecting senators. We do not require any legislative change, just a prime minister who is willing to adopt this new system. Senators must be citizens of Canada, at least 30 years of age and maintain residency in the provinces
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or territories for which they are appointed. Over time, “maintain residency” has been liberally interpreted with any property, even undeveloped land, deemed to meet the residency requirement. A senator must own land worth at least $4,000, which was a large sum but ironically nominal today. Finally, a senator may not sit in the Senate after reaching age 75. Senators are appointed by the governor general upon the recommendation of the prime minister. That’s it! Since 1989, Alberta has “elected” three senatorsin-waiting and provided their names to the PM for appointment. By appointing them, the two Conservative PMs established another precedent that a variety of methods can be used for identifying the names on the Senate appointment list. I ask all future PMs to appoint senators from a list generated by random selection from the population at large similar to our current jury system. This style of democratic government is known as demarchy. Demarchy is similar to our jury system and both evolved from the ancient Athenian system of randomly selecting decision makers. Senators selected at random would without any doubt provide a chamber of sober second thought on legislation forwarded from the House of Commons for approval. Random selection would create a Senate with approximately 50 per cent women and a percentage of minorities, occupations, levels of wealth and political views that would statistically mirror their percentage share of the population. The current Senate and House are not even remotely close to being demographically representative. Given that the Senate grows more ineffective with every passing day, a randomly selected Senate could do no worse. I believe it would perform significantly better. Kevin Mooney Red Deer County
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