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Citizens must take the lead to tackle climate change

Citizens must take the lead to tackle climate change Re: Pasloski blasts Trudeau's climate change commitment (The News, Feb. 13) Premier Darrell Pasloski talks about a price on carbon like it means stopping all fossil fuel use in the North. Nobody is say

Re: Pasloski blasts Trudeau’s climate change commitment (The News, Feb. 13)

Premier Darrell Pasloski talks about a price on carbon like it means stopping all fossil fuel use in the North. Nobody is saying that.

Economists have shown that putting a price on carbon will reduce consumption of fossil fuel over time, but it will also grow renewable alternatives, like the territory’s hydro projects that the premier mentioned. It will just get us there sooner.

At the political level, there seems to be some misunderstandings of how valuable a price on carbon can be to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It’s up to us, as citizens, to speak up to our politicians to help clarify it for them.

Citizen involvement is starting to pickup with volunteer groups like Citizens Climate Lobby, but it’s just the beginning. With 71 per cent of Canadians who think that climate change should be the number one responsibility of the government, we’re more powerful than we know.

Our voices have weight. We just need to speak up.

Amar Kumar

Etobicoke, Ontario