Dear Editor:
Recently at an Invermere Council Meeting, two members were quoted in the Pioneer paper as follows. Mayor Al Miller said, “There are a lot of pressing things in the Community that need to get done.” Then he added, “Where does (climate change) it fit?” Greg Anderson, councillor, added that “citizens have to be realistic with their expectations,” adding the concerns of citizens wanting more action on climate change needs to be balanced with the concerns of the “many other people in the district for whom climate change is not the top priority.”
Now is not the time for popular wants. Might we please change this thinking and wording to “The Earth must have respect as the ‘top priority over all other wants.’ Council has to be realistic, and that’s ‘exactly where it fits!”
Apart from helping with the basic human needs of clothing, shelter, and food, rightfully the health needs of the Earth should be the primary governing necessity for all other actions individuals, this district, Canada, and the world does. No other concerns have a higher priority while the Earth and the future are in such a perilous condition as to be nearly unsavable. Younger people will inherit an ever increasing massive amount of non-decaying garbage and toxic waste, and ultimately human extinction, if we continue with our present misbehaviour.
It’s said that if a meteor were to soon annihilate us on Earth, we’d all make it our priority to avoid that happening. In a similar context about human caused destruction and pollution, many are pleading, “We are now facing the biggest challenge in history.” And there really is no more time to delay. We need everyone to meaningfully change now and be a part of positive solutions.
B. Ark, Invermere
