Forest for the trees
Re “Our simplistic approach to forest management has added fuel to the fire” (Opinion, July 29): I think forest fires are evidence that it is much too late: We have damaged the Earth beyond repair.
We still can’t act with consensus. The polar ice caps are melting. The next century will likely see these natural disasters multiply. The effects are irreversible. The inferno is already underway.
We should be developing survival techniques, not electric pickup trucks.
Nigel Smith Toronto
While I agree with the underlying premise, I am dismayed by comments regarding Logan Lake’s FireSmart program, which employs high-school students to, among other things, manage controlled burns. “Talk about a cool summer job: You even get to burn stuff.”
Search “Ontario junior ranger fire deaths” and learn about the Aug. 22, 1979, deaths of seven young people who were participating in a prescribed burn. Sure, managing controlled burns may be “cool,” but it shouldn’t be for high-school students. Fires are extremely dangerous and unpredictable, particularly in the bush.
I know of what I speak: I fought forest fires out of Sioux Lookout during the two years that followed their deaths. Our crews faced countless close calls which, but for our experience and maturity, could have ended in similar disaster.
Robert MacLellan Toronto
Feel alive
Re “Human beings are mortal. AI isn’t. That matters” (Opinion, July 29): Thanks to reporter Ian Brown for his utterly human analysis of what, for many of us, is still an elusive abstraction. Computations of numbers have and will continue to advance our world, but not our reflection of it.
It’s the artifice of artificial intelligence, when misapplied to art and how we experience life, that leaves me cold.
Kathleen Brooks Vancouver
Perhaps we can take comfort in the thought that when entropy finally collapses our universe, even artificial intelligence will pass away.
In the meantime, I think our greatest immediate concern is unscrupulous practitioners who might put AI to nefarious use. We who are rendered gullible by our lack of familiarity will not recognize, or recognize too late, that we are being hornswoggled. That is a serious danger to all of society.
We should have a system that flags the use of AI in any process.
Hal Hartmann West Vancouver
Visual artificial intelligence creates images with pixels, not paint.
Such pictures have no palpable texture, no brushstrokes, no sgraffito, no glazes. Someone may yet connect a visual AI with a brush-wielding robot. But even if that works, who would want to look at the resulting painting?
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe IKEA, Walmart, et al. will stock such pictures by the thousands. If that happens, the paintings will be cheap – both inexpensive and tawdry.
Bob Young Kingston
“AI doesn’t die. It isn’t mortal, and so it isn’t close to human.” To borrow from Descartes: I die, therefore I am.
Nicole Chrolavicius Burlington, Ont.
Too hot to handle
Re “Americans are flocking to cities most at risk of extreme weather. Can they stand the heat?” (July 29): I smiled a very small smile at the thought that I “flocked” to Arizona. In my case, I felt forced to move to this heat dome to get my brother’s help in caring for our mother.
It’s true that many Americans (and a great many Canadians, judging by the flocks of Alberta, B.C. and Manitoba vehicles I see year-round) come here for a number of reasons, including warm winters, low taxes, lower housing costs and, for some, a perception of less “big government.” Many don’t believe in climate change. Others are mostly not worried because they will be dust by the time they believe the worst will arrive.
One of my neighbours, a retired academic from Maryland, told me that “even if we don’t pay the price for thinking we are greater than heat, someone will. And the price will be higher and more awful than we might imagine.”
Mary Stanik Tucson, Ariz.
In the bag
Re “The nonsensical ban on compostable plastic bags” (July 29): It feels naïve to expect federal law to allow the use of plastic bags that are only compostable by special municipal facilities. Even in Calgary, there is no guarantee the bags would end up in such facilities.
We should instead encourage Canadians to provide input to the United Nations negotiations for a global treaty on plastics. The international community is grappling with the complex challenges of regulating plastics, including volume, content (toxins, additives, recycled material), waste management and legacy plastics.
Plastics have not only infested our oceans, but also our freshwater, soils, wildlife and even ourselves. Let’s promote stringent federal and global actions to tackle this enormous challenge, with the knowledge that there is a global market for Canadian innovation.
Anne Daniel Ottawa
Think about it
Re “Of all the planets aliens could have visited, they came here?” (Opinion, July 29): Columnist Andrew Coyne captures the scene so often reported by people who have not considered the complexity inherent within our society and surroundings.
The many factors and forces that need consideration, along with the lack of analytical capacity in some individuals, can lead to misleading conclusions that are digested by the gullible. Not understanding the probability of an event occurring is the basis of such conclusions.
If people took time to truly analyze a circumstance such as aliens arriving on our planet, while taking into account even a portion of Mr. Coyne’s commentary, they would benefit greatly from understanding the odds of such an event actually happening.
Gamblers do this intuitively.
Walter Petryschuk Sarnia, Ont.
Shoot his shot
Re “Remembering the time I helped Stephen Harper with his hockey book” (Opinion, July 29): What a wonderful piece by Roy MacGregor. It prompted me to reread A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs and the Rise of Professional Hockey.
As a big Maple Leafs fan since the late 1960s while growing up in Ontario, I had added the book to my Christmas wish list 10 years ago, after trusting the Globe review by another former writer, John Allemang.
My darling Mike, who has gifted me books on every occasion since 2002, inscribed it for me: “May it be as good a read as you have hoped. My own experience, of course, is that the Conservatives will let you down, but I am willing, no, hopeful, that this will be the exception.”
Debra Dolan West Vancouver
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