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Planet on fire
Re To Improve Recovery, U.S. Calls On OPEC To Increase Oil Production (ROB, Aug. 12): I had to try hard to resist adding brandy to my morning coffee while reading this article. It seems to me that what we should be trying to recover from is the planet being on fire, drowning in floods or sweating in heat – not (high) oil prices. It’s a race to see what burns up first: the oil reserves, or the planet. Business as usual, which has delivered us to this destination, has to be changed. Unbelievable.
Bill Bousada, Carleton Place, Ont.
Re Humans to Blame For Acceleration in Climate Change: Report (Aug. 9): That the world is dangerously close to runaway warming should not be a surprise to anyone. The recent dire report from the UN simply confirms through the use of computer modelling what scientists have been saying for some time. It is hard to stomach, and yet even with daily catastrophic weather events in Canada and across the world, we look away. Another fire, another flood, another drought, heat domes. A rise in temperature of 6.4 degrees is predicted for the Prairie provinces this century, which will virtually dry up our bread basket, but is this news? We all know about the Lytton fire because it warranted the front page, but can we name the fires that followed?
For now, rich countries and individuals have the privilege and resources to dismiss the reality of climate change as it devastates more vulnerable communities around the globe. But it will get harder, if not impossible, to dismiss if we continue our runaway and irresponsible use of fossil fuels. Responsibility for our present predicament needs to be accepted, however hard that might be. We need to right a wrong and the best time to start is now.
Ruth Allen, Toronto
All God’s children
Re Ontario Pastor Fired After Coming Out As Trans Files Lawsuit Against Baptist Church (Aug. 12): If I could, I’d want to speak to the 58 people who said “No, thank you” to Junia Joplin’s continued leadership and ask exactly where they got their religious belief that being queer, especially trans, was problematic.
Looking through Christian-specific scripture, it’s not an enormous challenge to locate statements that outright affirm Ms. Joplin, asserting that she has been called to live in freedom (Galatians 5:13) and that she is who she is by the grace of God (1 Corinthians 15:10).
May Ms. Joplin remember that she is one of God’s equal children, as God didn’t hesitate to relay in Ephesians 2:19-22, and that many people of faith are completely in her corner, hoping and praying she will be able to resume living her vocation as soon as she can.
Amy Soule, Hamilton
No more weapons
Re Canada is Flouting International Law By Continuing Arms Sales, Report Says (Aug. 11): The recent report from Amnesty International and Project Ploughshares confirms what we’ve known for some time. Canada is turning a blind eye to international law by proceeding with its massive $15-billion arms agreement with Saudi Arabia.
Amnesty International’s report confirms last year’s UN report that named Canada as one of the countries responsible for fuelling the war in Yemen. The six-year Saudi onslaught in Yemen made it into the world’s largest humanitarian disaster, with more than 20 million people in need of humanitarian aid.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must reverse course and end military arms contracts with the Saudi regime now.
Ali Manji, Thornhill, Ont.
Down with Delta
Re University Of Ottawa Becomes Second School To Mandate Vaccination (Folio, Aug. 11): It is baffling why institutions that profess to be our moral and intellectual leaders are pandering to the anti-vaccine movement. This is especially true in the case of Canada’s most prominent schools, including my alma mater, McGill University, which attract students from across the country and the world.
Inviting unvaccinated people to campus just as the Delta variant is cresting is a recipe for a superspreader event. What are they thinking?
Jeff Roberts, Leaville, Colo.
Games theories
Re Boycotting the Next Olympics in Beijing Will Hurt Athletes. Here is a Better Idea (Aug. 9): Bruce Kidd makes the familiar arguments for holding the next Olympics in China, as planned. Boycotts don’t work, he argues, and they are counter to the founder’s idealistic view of the Games being a place for “peaceful dialogue and sports.”
If the modern Olympic Games were ever so idealistic, that day is long past. Realpolitik rules, and nowhere more so than inside the Chinese state. Hosting the Games would be a massive propaganda coup for the Chinese government, showing the Chinese people that all is right, and proving to the world that unity against oppression is a hollow and futile fiction.
A cancelled or stunted Games would be a massive loss of face, damaging both internally and externally. There could not be a clearer message from the West and the world. It would be far cheaper, and far, far more potent than any number of protests at the UN or military exercises in the South China Sea.
Bill Hall, Toronto
Bruce Kidd makes a strong and well-researched case against the ineffectiveness of Olympic boycotts (Monday, Aug. 9). It is stunning, however, that he can do so without mentioning Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. We all hope that they will be home safely by the time we celebrate the 2022 Winter Olympics, but if not, should their situation not affect Mr. Kidd’s thinking? Should Canada cheerfully wave our flag in China (and thereby encourage other nations) while the Michaels are imprisoned as hostages? How can the discussion occur without naming them?
Ross Wells, Kitchener
City living
Re Turning the Page on Jane Jacobs (Opinion, Aug. 7): People have always wanted high-vitality neighbourhoods, liveable environments, transit stations, breathable air, sunlight, green spaces, not wind tunnels, not urban heat islands. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Ms. Jacobs says, “Among those responsible for cities, at the top there is much ignorance.” What has changed since 1961? In 2014, the celebrated Canadian architect Terri Meyer Boake said, “Important issues of street-level concerns tend not to be addressed in fantasy proposals for tall buildings.” High-rises use almost twice as much energy per square metre as mid-rise buildings. But still Toronto lauds high-rises. Are Beijing, and Mumbai role models for our city planners and politicians?
Margaret van Dijk, Toronto
The greatest threat to the health of our cities is the lack of affordable housing. Until this changes, our young – the most vital part of the population – will exit cities in droves.
Lori Keenan, Vancouver
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