As reports on the UN…

As reports on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change make clear (see URL, below), residents of this planet have a very small window of time, about 12 years, to control global warming. It is said that "The world stands on the brink of failure when it comes to holding global warming to moderate levels." We need "unprecedented actions" to avoid global warming of 1.5 Celsius over preindustrial levels within 12 years. Canceling the Climate Change Mitigation and Low-carbon Economy Act of 2016 effectively closes the window of opportunity Ontarians have to save ourselves, our habitat and life as we know it in the face of the hydra-headed challenges of climate change. Cap-and-trade regulations are our best policy tools for slowing/affecting climate change. Unlike carbon tax strategies, which merely put a price/tax on carbon emissions, and do not control the risks of expanding carbon emissions, cap-and-trade strategies set emission targets, and put the risks, and costs, of failure on the side of emitters.

When the present government of Ontario proposed Bill 4, the claim was made that the required public consultation on ending an environmental regulation was met because the PC platform included cancellation of the Climate Change Mitigation and Low-carbon Economy Act, 2016. The presumption was that a vote for a PC candidate was a 'vote' for (what has become) Bill 4. Using that same logic, note that the three other parties, NDP, Liberals, and Green Party, all supported cap-and-trade emission control policies. Those three parties garnered 3,318,354 popular votes to the PC's 2,326,632. So, by the logic of "a vote for a party is a vote for it's environmental policies," nearly 60% of Ontarians voted to support and pursue cap-and-trade emission control strategies.

The world needs us to reduce drastically greenhouse gas emissions immediately. Canadians need to reduce emissions to meet our Paris Agreement targets. And, Ontarians, by a ratio of nearly 5 to 3, support cap-and-trade emission controls as the best way to save the world, Canada and ourselves. Where will we be, what will life be like, what future can we give to our children and fellow-beings, if we wait until the next provincial election to take concerted, effective, moral action against climate change? I ask each reader to fathom life, their life, and their families lives, in a decade if we don't do now all that we can to change our ways, to cap and control our emissions. Oppose Bill 4. Indeed, the Ontario cap and trade policies should be made more aggressive, not ripped away.