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Letter: Heat dome should be a wakeup call for humanity

The scariest thing about climate change is not floods, fires or droughts, but that one day, not too long from now, our planet will be uninhabitable, writes a West Vancouver resident in her plea for everyone to take immediate action. 🌎
delta, bc heat dome
Last year's heat dome resulted in 619 heat-related deaths across the province of B.C.

Dear Editor:

The scariest thing about climate change is not the floods, the fires, the droughts. It is not the possibility that one day, not too long from now, our planet will be uninhabitable.

It is that we know all this, and we’re still going about our lives, business as usual. In recent history, people have fought in revolutions over national sovereignty, identity and self-determination.

In 1773, American colonists dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbour because they were facing “taxation without representation.” In 1885, the Métis people led an armed rebellion when they feared the Canadian government was encroaching on their way of life.

Science has been telling us for decades that our continued dependence on fossil fuels will cause millions of premature deaths, 619 of which occurred in B.C.’s heat dome last year. 

What will it take for the public to realize that everything we hold dear is being threatened by the negligence of our leaders? What will it take, then, for the public to rise up and fight with everything we have for everything we have? 

Emily Kelsall
Eagle Harbour

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