Dear Editor:
I didn't know whether to cry or laugh when I read that another climate change summit has been convened in Doha.
Global warming and resulting climate change are irreversible facts, and nothing these out-of-touch academics can do will have any effect. I can't imagine anything more useless or futile than another climate change summit. What an utter waste of time and money.
Huge amounts of carbon emissions have occurred since the world started to industrialize 250 years ago, and those emissions alone will ensure that the global warming-climate change process continues for the foreseeable future. Also, I suspect the process is self fulfilling in that as it continues there will be more and more naturally occurring carbon emissions.
It is hard to justify making the economic sacrifices required to achieve even a minimal reduction of carbon emissions when so called Third World countries like China are exempt and continue to spew massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
Also, none of the goals set at past conferences have been met. Most countries, Canada included, have paid lip service to those goals and gone on just as before with the result that, instead of achieving a reduction in carbon emissions, there has actually been an increase.
It is time for a realistic assessment of the situation. I would dearly like to avoid global warming and climate change, but based on a review of the evidence it is clearly impossible to do so.
The world's leaders need to refocus their efforts and concentrate on preparing to deal with the macro-effects of global warming, particularly the melting of the polar ice caps and resulting catastrophic rise in sea levels and climatic temperature and precipitation shifts which will radically alter land use in many parts of the world.
Garth Evans, Burnaby
