Climate Action Muskoka (CAM) will be presenting its Climate Emergency Declaration resolution to Muskoka District Council Monday, October 19 at 3 p.m. CAM member Melinda Zytaruk will delegate digitally on behalf of CAM to the Council, after which a vote to declare a Climate Emergency will take place.
“The community first called for the District to declare a Climate Emergency last September during the Global Climate strike,” says Sue McKenzie. “This declaration is vital to setting Muskoka on a speedy decarbonization of our community to help keep global heating to 1.5ºC.”
Endorsements of the resolution have come in from community leaders, businesses, groups, and individuals. CAM invites everyone to visit its website this week to view the list of endorsements and to add your name, business or group here.
CAM also launched its ‘50% by 2030 Community Carbon Challenge’ Thanksgiving weekend, inviting the Muskoka community to match the same reduction of greenhouse gas goals being asked of the District of Muskoka. You can read about that and join the challenge at climateactionmuskoka.org.
CAM is an inclusive, non-partisan group of citizens concerned about climate change in Muskoka.
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Ms. Hastie
With respect to your comment about some political parties are not concerned about debt; these parties, one would assume, are the NDP and CLP. Both parties subscribe to socialist ideology and the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is the current siren’s song.
MMT might work if your economy is completely internal. Then you could print all the money you would need and simply default on any debt owing because it is internalized.
The problem with MMT is that the Canadian Economy is not completely internalized and the value of the dollar is based on what other’s value it at.
Just ask Venezuela and Zimbabwe how their MMT approach worked for them. Hyperinflation has destroyed their respective economies and the vast majority of both intellectual and economic investment have fled from these countries as a result.
These 2 political parties (NDP and LPC) are playing a very dangerous gambit with the future of this country by not acknowledging the risk of unmanageable debt and assuming that the economy will completely and quickly recover to pre-pandemic levels when Covid 19 has been removed.
Alas, I have no confidence in this Federal Government to properly manage the economy which will result in considerable tax increases. To make matters worse, Provincial and Municipal Governments are being pressured to adopt similar spending habits which will also lead to considerable tax increases at their levels of responsibility.
All of this to say simply to you that taxpayers cannot afford unrealistic expectations of some people.
Yes, we should all do our part to limit waste and energy consumption. But, we must be realistic and truthful when it comes to climate change.
A reply to Lesley Hastie. Everything your saying sounds very good until you get the tax bill for all these things . One more thing about the electric cars and buses you talk about. Have you ever seen the mining operation for getting the stuff most batteries are made of and how about the fiber glass bodies I’m not sure what they are made from but betting oil has something to do with it. Also from what I hear electric cars do not work very good in cold climates. But as I have said before climate change has been going on for thousands of years and in my opinion it will not be stopping in the future so we better learn to live with it . As far as pollution is concerned that is something we can do something about and a lot of us are doing what we can. I just found out that we use 37% less hydro than most of our neighbor’s with the same size home . Just a small thing but all my appliances are energy efficient as is my furnace and hot water heater so i try to do my part as far as pollution is concerned.One other thing about Electric cars have you ever stopped to think about how much power we will have to generate if everyone in the cities started to come home and recharge there cars Just the cost of upgrading the grid to supply all that power will be enormous even without the generation cost. All this stuff sounds good but the cost is out of reach for most of us. .
1. Firstly, Steven, Canada pollutes way above what its population size would suggest. We are the 10th biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world and in the top three globally when it comes to GHG pollution per capita.
2. And Ray, did the people of Huntsville believe that it would be useless to send any of their people to fight World War II..that they could end the war? Of course not. Similarly, we are all on this planet together and should all do our part.
3. Will, the emergency resolution from Climate Action Muskoka asks the District to examine every policy , every purchase through the lens of its impact on climate change. In some cases this will save money especially if considered over the lifetime of the policy or purchase. Short term cost savings can be unimportant when compared to the long term cost. For instance buying an electric car might seem more expensive than an internal combustion engine vehicle, but considering the lower maintenance costs (up to 20,000 parts in an ICE compared to 200 in an electric) and the lower (and non polluting) fuel costs in an electric, over the lifetime of the electric it will be the less costly. Similarly, it might be inexpensive for the District to do a quick repair of a bridge over a stream or River, but the changing climate and expectation of floods means it would make better financial sense to install a huge culvert instead. In the long run, the cost of climate change will far outreach the cost of doing nothing, by trillions of dollars.
4. it is very apparent that the future of good jobs does not lay in fossil fuels. We now have four Canadian companies making and exporting electric buses, and they are expected to account of two thirds of buses on the road and nearly 80% of bus sales by 2040. (Bloomberg New Energy Finance). Canada’s clean energy sector already employs 300,000 Canadians and is projected to employ over half a million by 2030. Think of all the jobs that could be created all across Canada by retrofitting buildings to improve Insulation, improve energy systems. This is the future.
5. Will, Canada used to raise money, (including to fund its costs of the Second World War) until 1974 by internal financing and not by having to borrow from the international market. We are seeing a return to this method of financing federal expenditures which is why there is less concern about the deficit in some political parties.
6. And Ray, I too would like a return to some of the simpler less wasteful habits you mention, where we stop cutting down trees to produce toilet paper, where we turn off the lights when we leave the room, drive a little slower. recycle or compost everything we can… these are among the ways in which each of us can reduce our own carbon footprints. (Take the Community Carbon Reduction pledge at Climateactionmuskoka.org.)
Reply to Brian. Everything your saying would be great but to do that we have to change the thinking of almost every manufacturer in the country and get them to revert to the way things were done 60 or 70 years ago. Back then there was very little waste pop came in returnable glass bottles and almost everything else came in glass jars or tin cans the tin cans rust away to nothing in a very short time food scraps were fed to the dogs or animals if you were on a farm newspaper was used to light the fires or toilet paper not sure anyone wants to go back that far but what I’m trying to say is not many would or could go back to that way of living we did it because we never had all the luxuries we have now so never missed them. Nothing would make me happier than to see a return to glass water and pop bottles that could be returned then add jam and pickle jars the list could keep going just that alone would sure help out out landfills
How about declaring a Taxpayer Emergency while we are at it ?
What are the associated costs for this “climate emergency declaration ?
With a Federal deficit spiraling out of control and taxes expected to climb at all levels of government, I, along with numerous friends and neighbors, are deeply concerned over additional costs that really amounts to “virtue signaling “ when the overall impact will be negligible.
I suspect that there would be an expectation that the District would be required to replace its fleet of vehicles to electric and all District buildings to be net-zero for heating, lighting, etc. these are but two examples of impacts to consider.
tremendous costs to taxpayers.
Canada (as a whole) = 1.5 % of global emissions. Even Trudeau himself said “even if Canada shut down, it would have little to no effect”. Get ready for the 2nd stage called CFS (clean fuel standard) (with even more ethanol in your fuel) + 10-20 cents more at the pumps and 3-4% hike in natural gas. CFS regulation has also been stated to cause 30,000 job loss nationally. All this during covid (not to mention all the other sneaky stuff going on at Parliament). Didn’t JT just say “the last thing Canadians need is to see a rise in taxes right now”. British Columbia was the 1st province years ago to start this program and their data shows emissions up 10% over the last 3 yrs and on the rise over the last 5 yrs.
Trudeau government shows little to no interest in balancing economic needs with environmental objectives. So another round of Carbon Tax (ok, disguise it as CFS) during the most challenging period this generation of Canadians has ever been through shows a depressing lack of empathy and understanding for many struggling businesses and families.
True, Canada is a tiny player. Numerically we don’t matter. It is called being insignificant I suppose but consider this.
If we could all work together in Canada to make our country, which by the way has some of the greatest resources and most undeveloped area of any country in the world, make it into an example of what can be done.
If we could reduce our fossil fuel consumption, keep good jobs for our work force and maintain a reasonably nice and comfortable life style, all at the same time that would be some kind of achievement to be proud of.
If we look at the issue from a scientific viewpoint, and find practical ways that work to make these reductions as well as gradually banish the words “garbage and landfill” from our vocabulary we could then look forward to a more secure future, with less worries about world events having major effects upon us.
Better now with some small costs, much better for our kids further in the future! It is all possible if we are not too self centered and manage to work together on this.
Replies.
Ray: “Do people really believe that anything we do in Huntsville is going to make a difference in the world. It’s almost funny that anyone would believe it”. I am hilarious.
Chas: There is a cost to human choices, relative to life on Earth. I think the “taxpayer” a relatively insignificant concept.
Response to Ray Vowels:
As you said, “I’m not saying we should not try and do things…” so let’s do that and be PART of the solution.
And this group is not saying “to think we will save the world…” they are asking the district to declare that Climate Change is an emergency and that would prompt additional questions when making changes to their operations.
And the cost to taxpayers?
Do people really believe that anything we do in Huntsville is going to make a difference in the world. It’s almost funny that anyone would believe it. If you shut down the whole of Canada it would make no difference to the pollution of the world and no difference in global warming. I’m not saying we should not try and do things that don’t pollute as much and things that save energy just because it makes sense but to think we will save the world from global warming is beating your head against the wall.