To the Editor,

The government of Canada welcomes your help in choosing “Options to Cap and Cut Oil and Gas Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions to Achieve 2030 Goals and Net-Zero by 2050.” You still have time to meet this Friday’s deadline (Sept. 30th).
Your voice does matter. Don’t count on Hurricane Fiona having necessary lasting influence. The fossil fuel industry is very aware of and afraid of our power, should enough of us decide to wield it together. Their lobbying front, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, is in daily contact with our elective representatives and senior civil servants. And yes, “the squeaky wheel has gotten the oil” – so far!
No time to research and write your own letter? No problem, here are two citizen groups’ petitions you may consider: www.leadnow.ca/emcap-cons/ and 350.org/canada/emissionscap/.
Rachel Carson’s landmark book Silent Spring alerted the public to the dangers of widespread and irresponsible application of toxic pesticides.
Her following words transcend the 60 year interval to speak directly to all that we continue to face and offer a clarion call for our action.
“We stand now where two roads diverge, but unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been travelling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road – the one “less travelled by” – offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of our earth.”

John Gibb
Minden