Our letter to the editor in the Victoria Times Colonist on 08 December 2018:
LNG means a lot to First Nations
Re: “An effective climate plan must be bold and can’t include LNG,” Comment, Dec. 4
So the Sierra Club thinks an effective B.C. climate plan can’t include liquefied natural gas.
They have missed the point that by reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in Asia, replacing coal to generate electricity, LNG from B.C. would be part of an effective global climate benefit.
It’s all very well to say B.C.’s climate goals are not ambitious enough. But if we shut Canada down, 100 per cent, from coast to coast, world GHGs would drop by a mere 1.6 per cent. That would make no serious difference, globally, as other countries continue to produce and increase emissions.
GHGs and climate change know no borders. It’s time to think globally, and recognize that for every unit of GHGs that B.C. produces to get our LNG to market, the overseas production of GHGs goes down by a factor of 10.
LNG development in B.C. means a lot to First Nations: jobs, careers, training, and revenue to improve education and health services, and to improve tragic social and living conditions.
Canada and its standard of living ranks sixth in the world, according to the UN Human Development Index. Apply that index to Canada’s Indigenous Peoples, and it ranks 63rd.
LNG development and exports can help close that gap.
Karen Ogen-Toews
CEO, First Nations LNG Alliance
The original is the third letter in this Times Colonist roundup
(This item posted here on 08 December 2018)
