Neil Horner as right when he said we are racing toward the cliff of our extinction (Horner’s Corner, May 16 edition of The NEWS).
As the NDP coasted toward the victory they were promised in the polls, a desperate Liberal campaign apparatus saw an opportunity to eviscerate an undefended NDP. And so they did.
Thus British Columbians traded their illusory “honesty in politics” for the sweet talk of a former talk- show host with a pretty smile and promises of pie-in-the-sky such as a heritage fund bulging with billions of dollars in illusory natural gas receipts fractured from our withering planet — and turned their backs on a promise of environmental protection from the pollution-intensive tar sands with its pipelines and “grow the economy” and “jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Fracking for natural gas leaves a heavier footprint than coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. It’s time to switch to renewable forms of energy which are rapidly becoming cheaper than fossil fuels. If we continue with our hyper-toxic tar sands oil and fracked gas, we will surely continue toward that convergence of cascading crises in both the economy and environment.
Most people believe in environmental sanity, we only need to stand up and say so.
As someone who was born during the privations of the Second World War and has fully enjoyed the most egalitarian times of recent history — 1950 to 1970 — I can thoughtfully say we have seen better times.
Stan Gauthier
Parksville