Coun. Norm Kelly of Ward 40 (Scarborough-Agincourt) found himself the butt of jokes this past week, by sharing his thoughts on global warming. Kelly informed fellow councillors during a meeting that, “global warming will bring more trees.” Kelly made the comments in response to Coun. Raymond Cho, arguing that climate change would reduce the city’s forest canopy.
One of the reasons that Kelly’s remarks have picked up so much attention is that he’s the parks and environment chairman.
Here’s an idea: why don’t these politicians take advantage of the slew of scientific professionals who are located right here in this city, instead of wasting our tax dollars on arguing about environmental issues of which their knowledge is limited.
Of course reporters jumped on his remarks afterwards, where Kelly shared more environmental gems such as, “If you go back in time, millions of years, when the earth was really warm, you found trees in the Arctic. So, more warmth, more trees, it’s as simple as that.”
Kelly also took flak for the source of the information he was spouting, Danish writer, Bjorn Lomborg’s book, The Skeptical Environmentalist: The Real State of the World. Kelly stated, “His information showed the air’s never been cleaner, the water’s never been cleaner, we’ve never had more forest than we have today.”
So let’s backtrack for a moment to see the two main points that put Kelly in the spotlight.
Millions of years ago it was really warm and there were trees in the Arctic; and his source claims our water and air is cleaner than ever.
First of all, I personally don’t give a flying fig at a rolling doughnut what was going on a million years ago in the Arctic, I CARE ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW! And right now, you could plant a million trees in the Greater Toronto Area and you would still be hit with that perpetual sewage smell, that wafts up every block or two and hits you in the face when you’re walking.
Also, our water and air is cleaner than ever? I wouldn’t go into Lake Ontario if my life depended on it. If you want to know how I feel about the GTA’s air quality, just look above.
We have many, upon many informed and educated specialists who have careers based on global warming. Mr. Kelly please pickup a phone and give one of them a dingle instead of spouting decade-old controversial Danish offerings.
But above all, QUIT WASTING OUR TAX DOLLARS with squabbles in areas you have obvious limited knowledge in.
This post had great potential until the ‘flying fig’ remark and all-caps sentences. It comes across as juvenile, borderline infantile, and unprofessional. An actual writer uses strong arguments, clever language and insightful ideas to prove their point, rather than capital letters. Keep trying.