The very term “global warming” is unfortunately used by some sceptics to falsely deny that anything environmentally bad is happening on Earth nowadays; in their minds, if a region of Canada gets record snowfall, or if China gets record cold, that automatically debunks the theory, because that surely shows it isn’t getting warmer. What the reality of the situation is that the overwhelming scientific consensus worldwide is that “global warming” will lead to climate change, which will lead to an increase in extremes and unpredictability of weather conditions.
You can see those extremes just south of the border. Everyone knows about the extreme flooding in the US Midwest - particularly Iowa. Not far south of Iowa however, the problem is something completely different - record drought:
Officials in the Oklahoma Panhandle are appealing for government aid to help with the effects of a drought that has harmed crops and livestock forage. “This area is starting to look like the Sahara Desert,” said Ann Boyd, a 76-year-old rancher in Cimarron County, at the western edge of the Panhandle. “There’s just nothing here. Even the weeds are dying. The buffalo grass isn’t coming up. There’s nothing.”
Apparently, only an inch and a half of rain has fallen on the Western Oaklahoma area this year:
It’s drier now than it was in the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s, and to date it’s the second driest year on record for the Panhandle. … Crops are failing. Cattle are starving. The winds are howling.
It isn’t just Oklahoma: Texas is also under a severe prolonged drought as is the Southeastern US. Look at other things that have been reported on: Australia’s record dry spring, one of China’s brutal winter’s for cold ever, and the fact that the Arctic is forecast to be completely free of ice at the end of summer; probably for the first time in recorded history if not unrecorded history.
ALl of these factors are evidence of those very extremes that have been predicted by the overwhelming worldwide scientific community. This is why we need to do something to stop or slow this process, which is why a plan like the Liberals Green Shift is necessary and indeed, urgent. We cannot continue to stick our heads in the sand like certain political parties and their supporters (actually, one political party and their supporters - the Conservatives) would have us do. They and their supporters can do nothing more then try to trash the Green Shift plan without offering any feasible alternative, and do nothing but try to inflame regional grievances without offering any alternative. They would have Big Oil continue to pump out GHG - all in the name of making as much money as they can - and they do so happily, plundering Canadian consumers at the gas pump while taking in record profits.
It is the Cons, and Big Oil that are “screwing Canada” by continuing to do this without thought or heed to the worldwide warning signals, and it is for this reason that the Cons. must be defeated at the earliest possible date, and the Green Shift and other environmental methods (the Liberals cap-and trade plan from last year - the Carbon Budget - is still on the books to be put in place down the road if the Liberals are elected), implemented as soon as possible to show that Canada is truly “back” as an environmental leader and is serious about trying to halt the climate change and the extreme weather caused by that which the global community is facing.
