On Sunday, June 23, I listened to CBC radio’s Cross Country Checkup, in which the topic was the Trans Mountain Pipeline. This issue generated a lot of passionate opinion, from end-of–world catastrophe to gung-ho disregard for science.
I came away with the observation that the science is so badly understood in the general population, and sadly in the political class. I wish politicians, from PM Trudeau down, would stop calling carbon dioxide emissions pollution. CO2 is not a pollutant.
There are many pollutants, but CO2 is not one of them. It is essential to life, and without it, no plants can grow. Currently we are at 400 parts per million, and plant life is thriving. It can be argued that we may be putting too much of it into the air, where it acts as a greenhouse gas and tends to warm the earth. But let us not cut it out altogether, as it is a basic building block of all life.
It’s rather worrying when our politicians don’t appear to understand basic high school science, and they are legislating for us. Please, politicians, if you want to be credible, get your science right.
I listened to varying attitudes from First Nations people. I would be more sympathetic to their demands to stop the pipeline if they were to give up their snow mobiles, chain saws, ATVs, generators, outboard motors, and synthetic parkas and rubber boots.
Peter Noakes
Charlottetown
