HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 2015-06-24, Page 44 News Record • Wednesday, June 24, 2015
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editorial
Climate change complex even for a Pope
On Thursday Pope Francis
-- named for the patron saint
of animals and the natural
world -- will deliver a papal
encyclical on ethical issues
and the environment.
Climate change activists pre-
dict the Pope will condemn the
immorality of man-made cli-
mate change caused by indus-
trial fossil fuel emissions, and
how it disproportionately
impacts the world's poor.
Papal encyclicals -- a letter
from the Pope to bishops
intended to guide church
teachings for the world's 1.2
billion Catholics -- are
significant.
And there is nothing contro-
versial about the Pope
reminding us, as most reli-
gions do, that humanity must
be a responsible steward of
the Earth.
That said, the morality of
fossil fuel use is complex.
Denying the developing
world the ability to use fossil
fuels to power itself out of the
Third World and into the First
-- which the developed world
did starting 150 years ago
Reuters/Giampiero Sposito
Pope Francis delivers a speech during an audience for the participants of the
Convention of the Diocese of Rome in St. Peter's square at the Vatican City,
June 14, 2015.
-- will result in massive
human suffering.
Climate activists rail against
suffering in the Third World
caused by rising seas, pro-
longed droughts, heat waves
and famines they say are
linked to climate change.
But against that must be
measured the certainty that
fossil fuel energy from coal, oil
and natural gas is responsible
for modern civilization.
Without it, people's lives are
nasty, brutish and short.
Where people do not have
access to reliable energy
sources, they must burn wood
and animal dung inside their
homes to provide heat, light
and cooking fuel.
But that results in the
premature death of millions of
people every year in the Third
World from respiratory dis-
eases caused by indoor air
pollution.
Without reliable energy
sources, people must stop work
when the sun goes down.
It's impossible to maintain
sterile conditions in hospitals,
or keep hot foods hot and cold
foods cold, which has huge
public health implications.
Nor are we unaffected in
Canada.
The mad rush into ineffi-
cient, expensive and unrelia-
ble wind and solar power to
produce electricity in Ontario,
for example, is helping to
drive hundreds of thousands
of people into fuel poverty,
where they spend more than
10% of their incomes just to
power their homes.
Finally, a major driver of
fossil fuel energy consump-
tion is population growth.
Thus we await, with interest,
what Pope Francis will have to
say on these complex matters.
Postmedia Network
The water problem - We created it and we can fix it
Laura Broadley
Clinton News Record
Imagine piles of garbage so high
they reach above your head. It may
seem to be distant imaginings but
it's the future if we don't act.
Maude Barlow, chairperson of
the Council of Canadians, saw
mountains of garbage when she
visited India.
It's in the developing world now
because they don't have the
money or resources to protect
themselves, but plastic isn't going
anywhere. The continued
production and single -use nature
of it enforces the "out of sight, out
of mind" mentality. But that's the
problem; eventually space in poor
countries will run out.
Plastic gets into the waterways
and contaminates it.
Around the world 750 million
people lack access to safe drinking
water, according to the World
Health Organization.
Diarrhea from drinking polluted
water, inadequate sanitation and
hand washing kills an estimated
2,300 people every day, according
to the World Economic Forum.
As Barlow said, there is a moral
imperative to act. People are
dying, water is being contami-
nated and wildlife is disappearing
as a direct result of the way we live.
Disposable plastic water bottles
aren't the only culprits in the elim-
ination of the world's water sys-
tems. Meat and poultry produc-
tion is another major factor.
According to the U.S. Geological
Survey one -pound of chicken
could require almost 1,900 litres of
water and the production of a
hamburger could require any-
where between 15,000 to almost
70,000 litres.
These numbers aren't definitive
because it doesn't necessarily take
into account different legislation
or production methods for each
farm and processing facility but
the overall idea is the same.
A collective lifestyle change is a
powerful way to make a significant
dent in the increasing precarious-
ness of our local environment.
No one is being told to stop eat-
ing meat or to never get into a car
but even small, cooperative and
incremental change at every level
can lead somewhere.
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