This letter is in response to a letter written by Doug Macdonald which was titled Whose Science is it?
Some excellent science has been done by the world's climate scientists - 97 per cent of which are stating that man made climate change is an enormous concern.
Doug Macdonald mentions that CO2 is important for plant life which is true but it is the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere that scientists are worried about - 350 parts per million CO2 is considered safe and good for plants. However, the measurement on Jan. 23, 2024 was 421 parts per million. The source of this information is NOAA and published by the Guardian News. There has been a 24.5 ppm increase in CO2 in the past 10 years. We are 71 ppm above the safe level.
Macdonald suggests that farmers need fossil fuels, more importantly though, farmers need good weather conditions.
Climate change can cause extreme weather events which is very dangerous to the agriculture industry.
Droughts, floods, heat domes, and smoke from wild fires can cause big problems for farmers. Sudden fast changes in temperature at certain times are dangerous for crops.
Weather conditions have hurt grape growers and peach orchardists in recent years.
Just as some large transport carriers have switched to electric vehicles, farmers will be able to modernize farm machinery.
Organic farmers have also proved that growers do not need fossil fuel based fertilizers and pesticides.
We are now experiencing the effects of climate change.
Our planet set a record in 2023. It was the warmest year ever since people began keeping records. It was the worst year for wild fires.
Already in 2024 we have had a record breaking temperature of 21 degrees celsius in January in a part of Saskatchewan which was warmer than any place in Florida that day.
In early February there was an extreme weather event in Sydney, Nova Scotia and parts of Atlantic Canada with 150 cm of snow falling in two days and high winds. This storm caused a state of emergency for that region.
At the same time there was a large atmospheric river in Los Angeles with land slides and floods. We can not ignore the many extreme weather events we have been having.
The good news is that we now have many renewable energy projects which are providing many new jobs. This is just one of many solutions for mitigating climate change.
