Letters to the province, October 8, 2021: We cannot have healthy communities without respecting and protecting the environment

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We, British Columbia allergists and immunologists, working in the traditional, ancestral and undisclosed territory of Indigenous peoples, want to raise our imperative concerns about the climate crisis, including global warming, melting glaciers, rising levels from the sea, air pollution, water scarcity, droughts. , floods, forest fires and zoonotic infections.

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Warmer temperatures have caused the allergy season to be significantly longer, creating more pollens in the air, stronger allergens in the air, and therefore more respiratory and allergy symptoms. Other health effects of climate change include, but are not limited to, air pollution-related increases in the severity of chronic disease and injury and death due to severe weather. The extreme heat in our province last summer claimed the lives of more than 500 people.

As physicians, we know that we cannot have healthy communities without respecting and protecting the environment. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, Canada committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. More than six years after the Paris Agreement, Canada has not even submitted the 2020 Nationally Determined Contribution that expires in February 2020. The delay was attributed to COVID-19. The reality is that the climate crisis is as real as the pandemic and could be even more catastrophic if not addressed immediately.

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We ask the Canadian government to commit to the Paris Agreement by setting clear pathways and targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Canada must move rapidly towards the use of clean and renewable energy, ban the development of new fossil fuels, including fracking, and instead invest in renewable energy infrastructure. Some Canadian provinces have banned fracking. This should be expanded in the rest of the country. Pipeline expansions must be canceled.

Hydraulic fracturing and pipelines damage the environment by polluting our farmlands and excessive amounts of water, causing earthquakes and advancing global warming by releasing methane gas. Such operations threaten wildlife and disrupt natural ecosystems through industrialization. These effects have already harmed wildlife and, if not stopped, will have a significant negative impact on human lives.

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As settlers on unreserved lands, we have a duty to defend this land with the same level of care and respect as the indigenous peoples who originally resided and still reside in and protect this land, water, and animals.

Dr. Bahar Torabi (president) and Dr. Mandana Kaviani (member), Allergy and Immunology Society of BC

Open letter to Canuck fans about exhibition games

Don’t despair over the recent loss of the Kraken, folks. It is just an exhibition game. Players don’t understand the coach’s system and aren’t used to playing with each other, so it’s only natural that they look more like a bunch of strangers playing hockey than a professional major league franchise.

However, keep in mind that in past seasons the Canucks have been known to play exhibition hockey well into January.

Michael W. Burmeister, Langley

Letters to the editor should be sent to [email protected].