A Plea on Climate Change
By Sara Golling
While large numbers of Rosslanders (and others) found comfort in the sunshine on Sunday by skiing on the Blackjack trails, and doing just about everything — skiing, snowshoeing, hiking and fat-bike riding — up around Nancy Greene Pass, a crowd of about 200 Rosslanders gathered downtown in the winter fog-gloom, outside the library, holding candles.
It was Rossland’s climate vigil. Similar gatherings — some involving tens of thousands of participants — took place around the world. Speakers acknowledged the damage being done by climate change, and hoped for effective results from the COP21 (Conference of Parties) talks in Paris on addressing climate change.
Mayor Kathy Moore spoke of Rossland’s efforts to reduce the City’s emissions. Some spoke of business opportunities and profits to be made in shifting to climate-friendly living. We were all encouraged to attend the flim “This Changes Everything” that will be shown at the Miners Hall on December 6. And most signed petitions asking our government to do what’s necessary to slow climate change.
A few people privately commented that climate change is responsible for our current lack of snow, because — climate modelers suspect — the very long-lasting high pressure ridge in the Pacific Ocean that is shunting weather systems to the north of us is caused by the warmer waters there. And the warmer waters are caused by global warming, the complex effects of which are commonly called “climate change.”
One thing is clear from the science: humans are causing climate change. But it’s not at all clear that we vertebrates actually have the necessary backbone to change our values and lifestyles to address the mess we’re making of the planet’s biosphere.
