Fri | Mar 29, 2024

Climate change is not an emergency

Published:Monday | January 30, 2023 | 12:08 AM

THE EDITOR, Madam:

This climate change phenomenon is getting out of hand. The science is becoming ridiculous now, just like the ‘science’ behind COVID-19 and vaccinations. The winter is more harmful to mankind than the summer heat. Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant; we exhale carbon dioxide, and the trees need to absorb it. Water vapour is more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, by far. Carbon is a fundamental element of all living things, just like the chemical composition of fossil fuels.

Why the war on fossil fuels and an obsession on reducing the carbon footprint? Everything that has advanced our civilisation and livelihoods as a species has started from oil and gas – fossil fuels. The discovery of fossil fuels eliminated the need for oil from whales and charcoal from cutting down trees.

The infrastructure needed for renewable energy comes from fossil fuels, and how lithium is acquired for electric car batteries. So, at some point we must start questioning the ‘science’. How exactly did the climate activists and environmentalists measure the ocean levels rising? Obviously, if you move further away from the poles, the temperature of the atmosphere will drop. How far back have we been monitoring the polar ice caps, the atmospheric composition, the weather patterns?

That’s what weather does; the weather changes, from season to season. Natural disasters are measured by the damage they cause, that’s why every year, we say it’s the worst one yet. It could be a tornado, a hurricane, or a heatwave. We need to adapt to the climate and the weather, which is why we invented air conditioning units, water heaters, fans, stoves, and insulation. We need sound structural engineering to withstand natural forces and erosion of the earth’s surface.

Climate change is a sham. It’s a public relations stunt and an excuse for politicians to hide their failures. Imagine, all those politicians went to COP27 on gas-powered planes and returned to their mansions on the coast. Greta Thunberg needs to take a ‘chill pill’, because she dares not take China, Russia, India, or North Korea to task on their levels of industrial pollution.

Renewable energy should be used to supplement fossil fuel dependence, not replace it. Reducing deforestation, pollution and ramping up recycling and biodegradability is the way to save the planet, not riding bikes and going back to coal pots. Fossil fuels, oil and gas are here to stay, we need it more now than ever before to combat inflation, to keep the lights on, and have food on our tables.

KENDELL KARAN

Chaguanas

Trinidad and Tobago