It is not the intention of this letter to detract in any way from the multitude of accomplishments of the city’s climate change mitigation and adaptation committee as described in a recent Peak article [“City of Powell River climate change mitigation committee chair outlines accomplishments,” July 22]. This is about communication.
It does irk me, as a retired educator, when numbers are bandied about without accurate or meaningful context, such as “577.54 tonnes of carbon per year” being described as a “huge number.” Compared to what?
While it may seem that way in the relatively small window of the city’s corporate operations emissions, in the context of the qathet region’s overall production, it is a proverbial drop in the bucket.
In the 2017 ecoCity Footprint Summary Report completed in conjunction with BCIT and initiated by what is now qathet Climate Alliance, Powell River’s annual territorial carbon emissions were evaluated to be approximately 92,000 tonnes. Some simple math reveals that 577 tonnes is less than one percent of the qathet region’s total emissions based on six-year-old numbers. One can only guess what the region’s total is currently.
The point is that it is not helpful in the effort to get as many folks as possible to personally address the existential global threat we face due to human caused climate change by giving the general public the impression that local government actions are making a “huge” significant difference.
William Lytle-McGhee,
qathet Climate Alliance
