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Fantasy all that is on the menu

I just read the coverage in your paper of the recent candidates debate at the Parksville Community Centre.
18839558_web1_PQN-Letters

I just read the coverage in your paper of the recent candidates debate at the Parksville Community Centre.

Well, I did not miss much, did I?

Just more stuff on the environment; as if such a topic could be discussed devoid of the reality of fiscal issues, economic development, employment and the burgeoning federal debt. It is amazing how much we allow ourselves to exist in these bubbles of political correctness.

I just travelled on BC Ferries from the Tsawwassen terminal to Duke Point terminal.

At Tsawwassen, I saw the large Delta port with mounds of the dirtiest of fossil fuels, coal. Ships from Asia, burning fossil fuels, were loading the stuff. It is the largest port of its kind in North America.

Not one protester to be seen.

Then at Duke Point I saw the large pulp mill which processes trees and emits stuff in the air. Large machinery (burning fossil fuel) and people cut and carry the trees, upsetting the ecology. Large ships burning fossil fuels side up to the docks. Pulp is another B.C. export.

Not one protester to be seen.

Safely ensconced in a community hall (that just might be heated by a fossil fuel, surrounded by parking lots of asphalt) not far away, just days before, we find all these candidates espousing these platitudes about the environment while they spend the money generated from that coal and those trees, the oil and gas, the gold and copper, etc.

Silly talk of taxing the polluters doesn’t cut it — the billions needed will involve more taxes, higher electricity bills and more debt as Spain, Germany and California are now learning and with insignificant carbon reduction. China built 60 coal-fired power plants last year, says the Institute for Energy Research.

Meanwhile wind and solar, touted as solutions by these environmental types, cannot sustain a grid without fossil fuels; they desecrate the landscape, kill birds and destroy valuable ecology. But that type of talk is not acceptable anymore.

Fantasy and hyperbole is all that is on the menu.

Brian Peckford

Parksville