Dear Editor:
These days the news is full of stories about the destruction of our climate, our environment including, and, in many cases, our homes. Stories of forest fires, extreme heat, drought, flooding, crop failures are an everyday occurrence. And the cause is well known – global warming due in large part to our extensive use of fossil fuels.
It is hard to fathom then, the continued construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline now making its way through the Fraser Valley. Mr. Trudeau purchased the pipeline in 2018 with the understanding that it would create jobs for Canadian workers. And it has, in the amount of almost 33,000. But these jobs do not justify the continued destruction of the environment brought about by the approximately 143 million metric tons of CO2 to be produced yearly by the oil carried by the pipeline.
I am old enough to remember when children were subject to serious and occasionally fatal effects of childhood diseases such as mumps, measles and chicken pox. When vaccines were developed for these diseases, nobody was of the opinion that we had to let the diseases rage so that the doctors and nurses and other health care professionals would continue to be employed. We were talking about sick kids and their interests had to take priority. Health carers had other work they could find.
Now we have a very sick planet and the health this planet and everyone on it, must take top priority. Pipeline workers can find jobs in solar power and other such things. There is no planet B.
It is time, past time, that the Trans Mountain pipeline be halted.
Lillian Martin, Ph.D.
Agassiz