I've been reading the back-and-forth discussion around climate change. I'm not going to try to convince anyone that climate change exists or doesn't exist. I'm neither a scientist nor a hypnotist, so to try would be futile.
Instead I'd like to ask a simple question of both sides. What's the downside if you're wrong?
If the "liberal environmentalists" are wrong and climate change is a huge hoax, what's the downside for our world? Excessively clean air, quiet electric vehicles on our streets, healthier fish, and fewer man-made hills of garbage on the outskirts of our communities?
If the "climate deniers" are wrong and climate change is a real threat, what's the downside for the world? Flooding, unpredictable weather, and the potential wipe-out of the human race?
It seems to me, from my completely uneducated point of view, that the risks are far greater if we don't address climate change than if we do.
When the captain of a ship sees an iceberg coming, does he say "we'll be OK. We have a thick hull and we can turn later if we need to." No, he changes his path. I don't want to be on the Titanic.
John Carle, St. Albert
