Opinion: Letters to the Editor

Posted: 11/15/2018 3:00 AM

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/letters-and-comments-nov-15-500561731.html

Prof. Nazim Cicek’s article, while timely and pertinent in presenting a sensible, informative argument in favour of transit electrification, tends to present a soft sell on why Winnipeg should electrify its buses while failing to point to the desperate, running-out-of-time urgency of humanity being tragically pushed to the brink by our universal, omnicidal, man-made climate change crisis.

To his credit Cicek does, in terms of urgency, make us aware that there is hope because throughout the world many major urban centres "have recognized that moving away from pollution-spewing old technologies can happen quickly" and that many cities such as Vancouver, Paris, Los Angeles, London, Copenhagen, etc, are pledging zero-emission buses by 2025.

Nevertheless, it’s a little over a month since the UN’s dire report on climate change warned humankind that we only have a mere 12 years to stop global warming before the heating up of the planet reaches an irreversible point of no return.

After such a warning, nowhere on the planet should it be business-as-usual for homo sapiens, yet Mayor Brian Bowman’s half-asleep living-in-the-past city hall has no declared plans for a carbon reduction electric transit fleet.

In fact, if we want to have an inhabitable, friendly-for-our-children-and-grandchildren-planet, not only should we be electrifying our buses as soon as possible but we should be opening up automotive conversion centres throughout the city where we can toss out our stinking carcinogenic fossil-fuelled automobile motors and replace them with electric engines.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to go for a walk, a jog, a bike ride anywhere in the city, or visit one’s community mailbox, without having to breathe in the toxic car and truck exhaust?

Brian MacKinnon

Winnipeg