Climate change the least of our concerns

To the Editor,

With all due respect, I have to take issue with K.Richardson's recent letter(s) to the editor (Bancroft This Week, 11/18/16) and others spreading panic over climate change. I'm not going to debate here and now the validity of man-created climate change, and the benefits (or not) of carbon taxes, or any other government administered system of increased financial burden on the public for little to no actual results. I'm here to ask, K (and others) what do you expect the fine people of Bancroft to do about climate change?

Your recent letter mentioned raising/eating chickens instead of beef, or maybe going vegan/vegetarian. I'm not going to disagree with you here, but you do know that such choices are not cheap, and not too long ago here in this very paper, there were several articles about the high cost of hydro.

Many people are faced with having to choose between heating and eating. So if beef is on sale at No Frills and it's cheaper than chicken, guess what, beef will win the day, as you can't feed your family on “good” intentions regarding climate change.

When you're on a limited or fixed income, climate change is pretty much near the bottom on the list of priorities, as it should be. In fact, a recent (11/04/16) Abacus survey titled What Keeps Us Awake: Top National Issues, of the top five, the environment/climate change was ranked fifth. And notice that climate change is lumped in with environment, i.e. things like pollution, water/air quality, etc.

There are important issues Canadians are concerned about, namely: the economy, health care, poverty/inequality, and unemployment — all ahead of climate change. If you separate climate change from general environmental concerns, like the ones noted above, climate change by itself would be even further down the list, after things like immigration, housing, education/schools, crime/law and order, terrorism and foreign affairs.

Ian Moone

Bancroft