Modern Luddite

Any Suggestions: The News Friday Dec 5/2014

I have a suggestion Cherryl maybe you could give us your expert opinion on the hundreds if not thousands of other chemicals and other deadly toxins released in the burning and recovery of fossil fuels, maybe you could enlighten us of the benign inconsequential global affects of say Sulfur Dioxide which just one supertanker produces 5000 tons a year, and 16 super tankers produce more pollution than all the cars in the world and acidify our oceans, create acid rain, pollute our fresh water supplies and the very air we breath, not to mention damage our and our childrens health. Maybe you could give us your expert opinion about some of the other deadly byproducts of the fossil fuel industry such as Benzene, Nitrogen Oxides, Pet Coke, Formaldehyde, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), Mercury, Silica, Radon, Hydrofluoric acid(HF) Hydrogen Fluoride, to name a few of the more deadly ones. You continue to deny or trivialize the deadly affects this old fossil fuel technology dumps on the earth every minute of every day as though there is no other options, with flippant comments like going back to pre-industrial times. 

The simple irrefutable truth is that 97 percent of actual climate scientists agree that climate warming trends over the last century are very likely due to human activity but you chose to ignore the obvious and chose to not take the only sensible path out of this clear and present danger to life on this fragile planet.

I read your letters and it is quite clear the only degrees you have are in trickle down economics 101 and a masters degree in ultra right-wing double speak, thanks but I think I will trust and listen to the 97 percent instead of a modern Luddite.

Like Daniel Patrick Moynihan says Cherryl "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts”.

Fuzzy Logic

We have all seen the veiled Conservative governments latest attempt at using our tax dollars to make their political rivals look bad with their REEFER MADNESS advertisement which claims that Marijuana is 300 to 400 times more powerful than it was 30 years ago which is possibly true. 

Did you know that the prohibition moonshine alcohol (everclear) that was made in the days of alcohol prohibition was anywhere from 160-200 proof and contained any number of toxic metals and chemicals, lead, and methanol for example and killed thousands of people all through prohibition until the government finally legalized, taxed and regulated alcohol once again and once more made it safer for consumption. For one thing it is cut 4 or 5 times down to the normal 40 proof you buy in the liquor store only after you show your ID. 

To any reasonable rational person the fact that marijuana is 300-400 times stronger than it was 30 years ago is even more reason for this product to be legalized and regulated for it’s purity was well as strength and just as important keeping it out of the hands of children, as any fool knows pot is easier for children to get than alcohol or tobacco, as would be expected with any regulated product such as alcohol or tobacco.

I don’t expect Neanderthals like the Conservative to ever get it, but the fact is 71 percent of Canadians want to either decriminalize or legalize marijuana such as is happening right now in America the birthplace of the tragic, costly, failed war on drugs. In BC the figures are even more prominent, 54 percent are for the full legalization and regulation of pot.