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British Climate Negotiator at COP26 Archie Young, right, speaks with an Indian delegate ahead of a plenary during the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow on Nov. 13.BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

This is us

Re COP26 Ends With Deal, But Anger Over Coal Compromise (Nov. 15): With his cry about developing countries also deserving of wealth through the benefits of fossil fuels, India’s Environment Minister proves to me that he and others of his ilk just don’t get it.

The main obstacle I saw to significant progress at COP26 was that we operated as nations rather than as a species. If we view climate change as a threat to all of us as a species (not to mention all the others we’re dragging down with us), we could shed our nation-based arguments about development, prosperity, protections, blame and responsibility, then just get a move on.

But our tribal instincts – and the systems we’ve constructed that govern us, our trade relations and competition amongst ourselves – are strong. If history is any indication, they will likely win out over species-level thought and action – and doom us to failure.

Tuula Talvila Ottawa

Root causes

Re Flooding, Mudslides Wreak Havoc In B.C. (Nov. 16): I have to ask the B.C. Premier and MLAs: Why do we continue to clear-cut our proven first line of defence against mudslides, floods and climate change? Will the subsidized forestry industry pitch in for collateral damages?

Many areas of the province are already under evacuation orders and alerts as the saturation and atmospheric river continue. Canada Task Force 1 has been deployed. It’s bad when they get sent in.

My town endured two massive slides near clear-cut logging blocks in 2017, and many minor ones in 2018. One was substantial enough to prompt a state of emergency. Yet we continue to clear-cut and deforest, at an alarming rate, all our proven, native frontline methods of flood and mudslide controls, our forests.

We have had science linking forest-cover loss to increased hydrological events for some time now. Maybe it’s time to be more precautionary – climate change is here.

Taryn Skalbania Peachland, B.C.


Re What Lies Beneath: Exploring Canada’s Invisible Carbon Storehouse (Folio, Nov. 10): Those who protest the practices of industrial agriculture and forestry (and advocate for more ecological methods) have long argued that clear-cutting forests and tilling soil releases carbon. They also point out that spraying a clear-cut or a farmer’s field with the herbicide glyphosate can virtually kill all living organisms in the soil, thus destroying its ability to absorb even more carbon from the atmosphere.

This article now gives us an estimate of just how much carbon is sequestered in our soils and aboveground plants across Canada. The number is impressive, and demonstrates why Canadian farmers and foresters should cease their industrial practices. We can’t afford to lose this nature-based method of carbon capture and storage.

To accelerate the transition to more ecological practices at scale, Health Canada should ban the use of glyphosate.

Patrick Whiteway Black Rock, N.S.

Needles OK?

Re Understand? (Letters, Nov. 16): A letter-writer believes parental calm prevents needle phobia for children. Calm is certainly helpful. But if there is a true phobia, we should not diminish the complexity of this condition by assuming there is a simple remedy.

Understanding phobia, as with many other mental health conditions, requires us to educate ourselves, rather than devise theories that make ourselves feel better for not having to face challenges that others do.

Sue Gal Richmond Hill, Ont.


As far as needles go, I guess I could be considered an expert. I never kept a scoreboard, but I’d guess about 60,000 and counting. Some children, unfortunately, don’t stand much of a chance.

I treated a family for a number of years. When the young child was in the room, the mom would say, “Give me a thumbs up if everything is okay, and give me a thumbs down if Dr. Brown is hurting you.” Need I say more.

Steven Brown Toronto

Must read

Re Book Marked (Letters, Nov. 15): A letter-writer irks me so severely that I could barely eat breakfast. I believe she does a grave disservice to sexual abuse survivors and the #MeToo movement by supporting censorship, scapegoating lawyer Marie Henein and seeming to suggest that those charged with sexual assault should not be afforded fair trials.

Ms. Henein states clearly in her book that the criminal justice system is not perfect nor can it ever be, given that it is the result of human endeavour, but we can seek to change and improve it. The letter-writer’s assumptions indicate strongly to me that she has not read the book that she hopes to cancel, such is their contrast to what Ms. Henein actually has written.

Allyson Tojcic Richmond Hill, Ont.

Child care receipts

Re As Alberta Signs On For Child-care Funding, Ontario’s Resistance Stands Out All The More (Nov. 16): As Canadian provinces sign on to the federal government’s national child-care plan, Canada’s debt load climbs steadily. I have not seen any discussion on how it will be funded; I can only assume it will be debt-financed.

Canada runs a deficit every month and, as the Fiscal Monitor report shows, the government funds it by selling bonds. There is no repayment of the principal debt amount, only the interest is paid. In the absence of any repayment schedule, the government will likely be forced to cut spending drastically or increase taxes.

I encourage Canadians to ask their federal and provincial representatives how the national child-care plan will be funded. A country, just like an individual or a corporation, must repay its debts one way or another.

With the Liberals, we may end up being forced to repay them, which is not a good option.

Howard Godby Ottawa

Good ol’ day(s)

Re Canada’s Parental-leave System Fails Adoptive And Male Same-sex Parents (Nov. 15): In 1977, my husband and I adopted two children, a nine-year-old boy and his eight-year-old sister.

As a federal civil servant, my benefits provided one day off with pay for adopting a child. So when I put in the request for two days off with pay, my supervisor called me in.

He asked if we had adopted them on the same day. When I answered that we had (they were after all brother and sister) he replied that he could not grant me two days off since the adoption took place on the same day.

Colette Trent Chelsea, Que.


Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com

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