Letters to the Province, December 14, 2021: The Heart of the Reader Goes to the Flood-Devastated Families of British Columbia

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Re: Sumas Prairie Farm Family Returns Home Heartbroken

My heart goes out to the Wilbrinks and hundreds of other families like them who have been devastated by the recent rains and floods. Places like Sumas Prairie, Merritt, Princeton, and Vancouver Island, etc., have been hit the hardest by nature’s fury. Calamities such as forest fires, heat domes and floods require an immediate and highly concerted effort on the part of all levels of government, the indigenous community and citizens.

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To your credit, our youth have been vigorously advocating for immediate action in this regard. Drastic changes in our climate and the rapid melting of our glaciers have brought the issue of global warming to the fore like never before. The time to act is now!

Balwant Sanghera, Richmond

Buying ‘live’ Christmas trees is hypocritical

They will certainly accuse me of being “a real Grinch”, or worse, for this, but it must be said.

If we are seriously concerned about climate change, global warming and leaving a good environment for our children, why do people buy “live” Christmas trees? A misnomer if there ever was one. In addition to being enormously hypocritical. Why are you paying exorbitant fees for a now dead tree that was removing carbon dioxide from the air? Once you take it home and three weeks later take it to a gas-powered wood chipper or landfill, you will have unnecessarily added more carbon dioxide to the environment. Nice work, “environmentalist.”

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Once the tree is at home in a pot of water, you spend inordinate time covering its natural beauty with mountains of flashy lights and plastic ornaments. All products that waste copper, chemicals and minerals derived from petroleum. Again, adding, not reducing, global warming. Then, for three weeks, you turn it all on with electricity. Wouldn’t it be much better to donate to reforestation projects than to kill trees? It would certainly be less hypocritical.

Merry Christmas.

Gary ‘the Grinch’ Korpan, Nanaimo

Canucks owners finally get it

Well, it’s about time Jim Benning and Travis Green go. What was the wait? Bruce Boudreau and interim general manager Stan Smyl will do just fine.

Geoff Johannessen, Surrey

Re: Vancouver Police Will Not Require COVID-19 Vaccinations, Unlike Other Departments

The union president says the police lack resources. I wonder how under-resourced they will be when unvaccinated members get sick.

Dale Laird, Vancouver

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