Dear Mr. Trudeau:
I am a retired atmospheric/climate scientist concerned about our ability to fight the current climate crisis. It is exactly one year since I last wrote to your office, wherein I agreed with the climate plan emphasizing the need for rapid reductions in carbon emissions. The response (from Sylvie Poulin of Departmental Correspondence), dated 13 December 2022, indicated no change in path on the plan, simply reiterating the strategy to cap and cut emissions from the oil/gas sector “at the pace needed to reach net-zero by 2050.” But therein lies the problem:
‘net-zero’, based on Canada’s baseline year of 2005 when emissions were 730 MT.
The fossil fuel industry assumes this to mean they can maintain emissions at that level, 730 MT, while technology handles any increase,
as well as drawing down GHGs from the atmosphere. I question whether we are deluding ourselves, for emissions in 2022 increased globally to just under 40GT from 27 GT in 2005. (I have no data for Canada’s emissions in 2022, and I have no reason to believe that ours have dropped when global values have increased by 50%.)
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