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LETTER: Global environmental picture bleak, if changes not made

While I am aware of carbon emissions, being in the environmental business for over 20 years, we need to look at the bigger picture.
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While I am aware of carbon emissions, being in the environmental business for over 20 years, we need to look at the bigger picture.

Atmospheric pollution, which consists of many components including carbon, does not go away. It travels around the world with the jet stream, which has also become erratic in recent years and has significant effects on weather patterns. It used to be east to west, altering to north and south in seasons.

One recent article mentioned the local airport and air travel. The jet stream used to be a way for pilots to hike a ride – depending on which way they travelled, east or west – and save fuel. Today’s pilots have to deal with an erratic jet stream which zigzags its way across continents.

Carbon emissions maybe significant and are in the news, but it is only part of the larger atmospheric pollution which is increasing exponentially as developing countries all want to live a western lifestyle that is not sustainable.

The richest man on the planet became that way because he was smart enough to position himself and his company between all the cheap products made in the Far East that were consumed here in North America, and in many cases soon ended up in garbage dumps in the western world.

We are living in a fairy tale if we think this can carry on without big consequences. COVID-19 is on most people’s minds these days, but is only a trial run for the much bigger environmental picture and will require both local and global efforts if we want to survive as a species.

There are solutions, but at this time I see very little action. For example, government does not have any real transition plans on energy formats or dealing with global pollution.

Finally, Mother Nature does not really care if we are around in the future. We have already done more than our share of environmental damage on this planet, most of it in recent years. She will continue on without us and maybe even be happy to see our backsides. That’s the bottom line.

Wayne Winkler

Sidney