Prince Edward County wordsmiths found somewhat lacking

Only in Prince Edward County does a climate emergency become ‘climate urgency’

The World Was Just Issued 12-Year Ultimatum On Climate Change. Leading climate scientists paint dire portrait of years to come if we maintain carbon-emission status quo

Ignoring all public input, in what may be the silliest distinction of the year, Prince Edward councillors will ignore our climate emergency and vote to recognize a climate urgency.

Changing the name does not change the game. Still, councilors will consider  the following resolution at Shire Hall tonight at 7 p.m.:

1. WHEREAS, locally, the County is experiencing the early effects of climate urgency:

● increasing weather volatility: wind storms; increasingly frequent polar vortices and ice storms; hotter, longer droughts; unpredictable thaws and extraordinary flooding events and;

● predictable long-term effects of hotter climate and intermittent, sustained droughts and flooding like desertification, soil erosion and greater risk of grass and forest fires;

2. AND WHEREAS the land provides a living for many hundreds of families and individuals in Prince Edward County and we therefore have a duty to do all we can to protect that land;

3. AND WHEREAS the municipality has already invested time and resources in mitigating the direct effects of climate change in Prince Edward County;

4. AND WHEREAS this climate urgency and human activity that propels it is already having a devastating effect internationally on coastal communities, the polar caps, ocean habitats and biodiversity;

5. AND WHEREAS the social, economic and environmental costs will continue to rise on a local and global scale as this crisis grows;

NOW THEREFORE, The Council for The Corporation of the County of Prince Edward resolves:

To support other communities that have elected to ‘name and frame’ this global crisis by officially declaring a climate urgency;

To request that the Environmental Advisory Committee be re-stablished as a Council priority

and

To reach out to encourage other municipalities, as well as the provincial and federal governments, and urge them to commit to protect our air, soil and water and to commit to use all the tools available to reduce the human activity that is causing this climate urgency and to promote a safe and sustainable planet for future generations.

---