Re: Dennis Venturi’s letter “Cathy Orlando should cool it,” which appeared in the Nov. 8 edition of Northern Life.

On Nov. 8, Mr. Venturi suggested that I should “cool it.” Politely, may I suggest Mr. Venturi should read it?

Mr. Venturi said, “If Thibeault is in fact truly fasting for climate change.” If Mr. Venturi read the original article, he should have noted that Mr. Thibeault did not fast for the climate.

Mr. Thibeault signed a pledge with three simple requests of our parliamentarians to:

- End fossil fuel subsidies;
- Put a price on carbon;
- Support the development of a renewable energy plan for Canada.

What is wrong with these three simple requests? Mr. Venturi said, “It serves to highlight the political cynicism and pandering skills of our current left-wing political spectrum.”

This crisis is a non-partisan issue. One of Mr. Thibeault’s competitors in the 2008 federal election, Gerry Labelle, a Conservative, is a Citizen Climate Lobbyist.

Mr. Thibeault and I, although we respectfully disagree with each other on which is the best carbon pricing method, have had an ongoing dialogue for over three years about how to move forward together on the climate crisis.

Mr. Venturi said I am using fear mongering. Record droughts, record storms, record flooding, record damages and record temperatures are facts, not fear mongering.

Fear mongers use unsubstantiated data. Mr. Venturi said, “The protocol would have reduced global temperatures at the end of the century by .0008 degrees Fahrenheit.

How’s spending $180 billion a year on this loser going to help the working class Thibeault purports to serve?”

Mr. Venturi is using data from a book by Bjorn Lomberg, entitled “Cool It.” This is Lomberg’s data which has been disproven repeatedly. In fact, Lomberg backtracked on his own position in 2010.

Lomberg is not a climate scientist. Contrarians such as Lomberg publish books and make money. However, when scientists embellish data and deviate from known facts they can lose their credibility and possibly their jobs.

“Cool It” was published in 2007. Its climate data are incredibly out of date. The Earth’s climate has exceeded many of the predictions from the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which was a collaboration of more than 1,000 climate experts.

Citizens need to help our politicians find common ground so that we can move forward together on the climate crisis. I found that some of Mr. Venturi’s comments and innuendos about Mr. Thibeault in his article were disrespectful to his elected position in our community and consequently not helpful.

With the world of knowledge of information at our very fingertips, we can easily find up-to-date and factual information.

We just need to Google it, read it carefully and use critical-thinking skills such as checking accreditation of the authors or websites and the dates of the publication.

Let’s work with current facts on climate change and work respectfully together so we can truly cool “it” — planet Earth.

Cathy Orlando
national manager of Canada’s Citizens Climate Lobby