Friday, September 30, 2011

Climate Change Concerns: PT 1 “Ice shelves disappear under our noses”

[“Features that we consider to be part of the map of Canada are disappearing and they won’t come back.” D. Mueller, researcher at Carleton University, as reported in London Free Press, Sept. 28]


When I read the first two sentences in a recent small news blurb several thoughts came to mind.

“Canada’s coastline is changing because ice shelves are breaking up faster than expected, experts say. Almost 50 per cent of the ice shelves have been lost in the past six years...” Sept. 28, London Free Press.

I thought of my own recent column, i.e., ‘Commuters and consumers face more frustration’ (Sept. 22, The Londoner), in which I warned that frustration related to traffic congestion and high fuel costs are nothing compared to the effects of carbon emissions and climate change.

I thought something I mentioned in the column is directly related to the news blurb. Someone must be reading my stuff!

I wrote, “Still, as we pull items off shelves in local Wal-Marts, Dollar Stores and Canadian Tire stores etc., it's important to know we contribute our fair share to coal-fired production in China, thick pollution in highly-industrialized regions, the increase in toxic pollution in the Canadian north, the erosion of shorelines in Inuit villages and the melting of ice shelves in the Canadian Arctic.” (Please click here to link to full column.)

Other thoughts quickly sprang to mind.

More to follow.

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Please click here to read more Climate Change Concerns.

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