Dear Editor,

I have read three recent articles written by experts, concerning global warming. One of them gives the following ominous figures: the limit for warming the atmosphere before most life as we know it is stressed to extinction point, is two degrees Celsius. We are now at .08 degrees. Because there is a time lag between CO2 entering the atmosphere and warming of the atmosphere, what we are now putting into the atmosphere has yet to show up, years from now, in higher temperatures and the resultant droughts, cataclysmic storms, food and water shortages, species extinction, and other nasties which are destined to afflict our children and grandchildren.

Scientists have calculated how many gigatons of CO2 it will take to raise atmospheric temperature to two degrees Celsius or higher – 565 gigatons. What CO2 is already going into the atmosphere will raise the load to 460 gigatons in SIXTEEN YEARS at the current rate. There are 2,795 gigatons still in the ground, waiting for human idiotic ingenuity to get it out and hasten our demise as a life form. The enemy has been defined by one of the experts as the oil companies.

Another expert states that the enemy is US. You and me. We have to stop being consumers, and start being citizens, parents, caretakers, and stewards of the Earth.  Which, amazingly, is the FIRST COMMANDMENT you will find in the Christian bible, and the basic value of Wicca, and perhaps other religions as well, on which I am no expert. So it is with a somewhat ironic feeling that I must compliment the United Church for earning the wrath of Harper by at last coming out against the further “development” of oil.

  And the third article informs us that now the sceptics about global warming in the science world have changed their minds, and agree that human beings are indeed the source of the warming. All legitimate scientists are now stating unequivocally that it is human beings who are doing this to ourselves and our planet.

So we need to change. You and me. Not some evil entity out there. Us, first.

Which leads to the point of this letter – where, on Gabriola, is there an electrician who is willing to make affordable – and I stress, affordable, because this is a survival issue, not an exercise in capitalism – solar energy available, within the next six months? The information is out there. Please, someone, use it, and advertise yourself.