ABOVE OUR WEIGHT

These Letters to the Editor were published in the Globe & Mail on March 26, 2024.

Re “The carbon tax is dead. Long live the carbon tax” (Report on Business, March 22):

I would add that Canada emits more carbon per capita than China does. In fact, Canada emits more carbon per capita than most nations.

Therefore Canadians could ask: If my personal emission reductions were equaled by millions more Westerners, would that help reduce the temperature emergency the United Nations keeps warning us about? For most Canadians, the answer is yes.

Elizabeth Murray Toronto

Re “Price comparison” (Letters, March 22): On climate change, a letter-writer asks: “Why are we acting as if our actions will make a significant global difference?”

We have a choice between showing leadership or shirking. Which approach do we think would be more helpful?

Canada is not an insignificant country. What we do does get noticed.

Jim Davies London, Ont.

It would be unproductive to assess the contribution of the emission-reductions program without comparing it to the price per ton of carbon saved. That is, a measure of the program’s efficiency as well as its drag on the overall economy.

In the case of the retail carbon “tax,” the emission reductions may be relatively low but the actual cost is zero – because it’s not a tax. Rather, in a program designed to incentivize shifts in consumption toward greener alternatives at the check-out till, the upfront rise in the price of goods is entirely offset by the rebate, zero-sum.

Of course, this presumes alternatives are available – a possible flaw that would be a more valid criticism of the program.

Brian Green Thunder Bay

Author: Ray Nakano

Ray is a retired, third generation Japanese Canadian born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He resides in Toronto where he worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years. Ray was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 and practises in the Plum Village tradition, supporting sanghas in their mindfulness practice. Ray is very concerned about our climate crisis. He has been actively involved with the ClimateFast group (https://climatefast.ca) for the past 5 years. He works to bring awareness of our climate crisis to others and motivate them to take action. He has created the myclimatechange.home.blog website, for tracking climate-related news articles, reports, and organizations. He has created mobilizecanada.ca to focus on what you can do to address the climate crisis. He is always looking for opportunities to reach out to communities, politicians, and governments to communicate about our climate crisis and what we need to do. He says: “Our world is in dire straits. We have to bend the curve on our heat-trapping pollutants in the next few years if we hope to avoid the most serious impacts of human-caused global warming. Doing nothing is not an option. We must do everything we can to create a livable future for our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations.”