The other day I received a letter in the mail, written entirely in French, from a Port Hardy resident.
This was a first for me, receiving a letter to the editor in another language. Thankfully, my high school years spent studying the subject ended up paying off. I understood the majority of the letter and then had my dad fill in the blanks for me (my dad used to teach French at Port Hardy Secondary School and still to this day has a pretty strong vocabulary).
Anyways, the letter writer basically stated she wanted me to write about climate change.
I thought this was kind of an interesting topic, as I’ve never really gone on record about it in my own words.
I had an interview awhile back with the federal Green Party representative for the North Island riding, Mark de Bruijns, and he had some really interesting things to say about climate change and which parties have a viable plan for it and which parties don’t.
Let’s put politics to the side for a moment.
I read a statistic online that 97 per cent of scientists agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change.
Based off that alone, I think it’s pretty obvious that the climate change issue is a real one, and if we don’t do something about it now, then the future generations are the ones who are going to be paying for it.
That said, I know there’s a lot of climate change deniers out there who think it’s fake news.
The bottom line is this - Don’t argue science with scientists unless you are a scientist. If your car breaks down and you need to get it fixed, do you argue with the mechanic even though you know nothing about cars? I’d hope not. But stranger things have happened.
Tyson Whitney is an award-winning journalist who was born and raised in Port Hardy. His family has lived in Port Hardy for more than 40 years. He graduated with a degree in writing from Vancouver Island University in 2008. Email: editor@northislandgazette.com
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