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LETTER: Caring about climate doesn’t make me a radical

16-year-old climate activist not manipulative, but passionate
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To the Editor: RE: response to John Trainor’s letter, Nov. 1, 2019

I believe I read the Vernon Morning Star with objectivity and I find the paper fairly well balanced. I would offer that folks on the “radical left” would say that climate change deniers, such as John Trainor, are getting far too much ink.

To be fair, I would like to refute Mr. Trainor’s arguments with research I’ve done from the Vernon Morning Star, the CBC (radio and TV), the Vancouver Sun, the Globe and Mail, the New Yorker and MacLean’s Magazine.

Mr. Trainor warns that Dr. David Suzuki’s column pushes an agenda stating women should quit having babies. Trainor suggests that the impact of the world population explosion is not a matter of education. According to Mr. Trainor, most of us already know the demographics of the world. Apparently, we should not be concerned because it’s not our problem.

Further, Trainor insists that “we know from personal experience the Okanagan was warmer in the 60s”… and “fact checking shows that the temperature went to 45 C once in Saskatchewan in the 1940s”. Mr. Trainor’s suggests that people who are concerned about the environment are alarmists “who think their blip in time is important and can change the world.”

He warned readers to be suspicious of the manipulation of the media by 16-year-old Greta Thunberg. I would like to use her thoughts and suggestions to offer an opposing view to Mr. Trainor’s. I listened carefully to her speeches and interviews. I did not hear one example of ranting or screaming. I did her a strong young woman speaking passionately about the devastation she sees around her.

Ms. Thunberg advocates that adults, who are running the world, should immediately adopt some very simple to understand points. Educate people everywhere that current population growth is not sustainable, we must stop burning fossil fuels, we must protect our forests, cut down on meat production, join an activist organization and vote. These do not seem like the rantings of a “obviously afflicted child”. Rather, I saw a gifted, passionate and wise leader.

On Nov. 5, 2019, 11,000 scientists (410 Canadian) signed and published a letter in Bio Sciences Magazine warning that our planet is headed for untold suffering. These pleas do not come as rantings from the radical left but from a world community of people dedicating their lives to climate research.

I resent that caring about the future of our species puts me in the radical left. As a non-partisan person, who is primarily concerned for the well-being and welfare of my children and future grand-children, I must conclude that Mr. Trainor would rather gamble on doing nothing than to try and ensure a future for his children and future generations.

Brent Applegath,

Vernon, BC

READ MORE: Letter: it’s global warming, not Okanagan Valley warming