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Climate change prediction is “fake news”

Climate change is not something new. It’s been going on since long before the last Ice Age
8940327_web1_171019-NTC-JimLamberton2589

Editor, The Times:

I must say I was very surprised to see my name in your editorial again.The number of topics your editorial covers makes it impossible to respond to all of them in one letter, so I’m going to comment on some of them in the order they appear in your editorial.

I’ll start with the diagram showing how bunch grass and sagebrush will spread past Clearwater Lake by 2080. The diagram is nothing but a waste of good newsprint space!

It makes a prediction without any evidence to make it factual. It’s also called “fake news” or the “chicken little syndrome!” The saddest part of all is that neither one of us will be around to say, “I told you so!”

READ MORE: Responding to climate change means thinking differently

READ MORE: Former faller says wildfire response mismanaged

Thank you for the kudos about my previous letter. You said, “In terms of comments on social media, it had the biggest response by far of any article we’ve published.” What you didn’t say was that approximately 97 per cent of the responders agreed with me.

You mentioned that you thought I was a little too hard on BC Wildfire Service. Let me make it very clear that I’m not referring to the Fire Service office in Clearwater. I’m referring to the people from whom they get their orders.

I noticed that you had a problem with the final paragraph of my letter when I said, “I think you’d have to admit that this catastrophic fire season is not about global warming. It’s about mismanagement.” Well, I guess we will just have to agree to disagree, but I do agree that I disagree with the last paragraph in your editorial! “Surviving human-caused climate change requires that we think differently.”

Ironically, you just wrote about 10 paragraphs mentioning the Peshtigo fire of Oct. 8, 1871; the Chicago fire the same day, as well as several other fires. Maybe our editor can enlighten me as to how this has anything to do with human-caused climate change! Surely you can’t blame the automobile; it wasn’t invented yet!

I chuckled when you said, “Talk with old timers about how we don’t get the minus 40 degree C winters like we used to and they will agree.”

Keith, I am one of the old timers! In 1969, Aulin’s camp on Road 6 in the Clearwater TFL shut down for a week because the temperature was minus 44 degrees!

Climate change is not something new. It’s been going on since long before the last Ice Age. As a matter of fact, it caused the last Ice Age (Grade 4 Social Studies, both years!).

Getting back on topic, it is my opinion that to pass this fire season off as global warming will make for a very sad day. It would provide an opportunity for the provincial Wildfire Service to have a big meeting, pat each other on the back for a job well done, and carry on as though nothing has happened.

In closing, I must say that as far as the topic of global warming is concerned, I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg!

I must also mention to our editor that the front page article in the Oct. 12 Times, “Councillors meet ministers at UBCM” touched on several topics. However, I’m very surprised that an article that was run in the Vancouver Sun on Sept. 30, page A4, was not mentioned. The article was, “Municipal leaders vote No on Martin Mars contract.” Ah, yes, for another day!

Jim Lamberton

The Rambling Man

Blackpool, B.C.