LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
- January 2, 2007
Via The Editor: Dear Aurora Cole of Keremeos: Re: Your letter, News Leader, December 11, 2006
Wow, I am amazed. I certainly never expected to become a schism in my lifetime but, hey, why not! However, I don't agree that Karinism stands for broad brush painting of those who oppose my opinion. In fact, throughout these many weeks I have pretty much been a lone voice on the side of progress for Princeton. I do not recall that I have directed a personal insult to anyone, as you have done against me for 42 column inches of newspaper space.
You loudly and clearly challenge my right to speak. Let me explain that letters to the editor are the modern soapbox and no qualifications are required to express an opinion. I would not normally blow my own horn but since you insist: BA, SFU 2001, Psychology Major, Evolutionary Focus, Concentrations in Geology, Archeology and Anthropology. Douglas College, Occupational Information Advisor Certificate. Now may I speak?
I can not possibly respond to your many insults and claims; I don't even understand some of them; but I will address that which lends itself to explanation.
You ask why am I here. To retire of course, like everybody else, but after a lifetime of challenge, true retirement just was not for us. I don't know how to play all day or just watch television.
My husband and I moved to Princeton from Port Coquitlam because we have camped along the Similkameen for many years and we like the open vistas of the Interior. We did so, fully intending to stay to rebuild our lives. We live here every day, all year. In our three years here we have improved the physical community by renovating neglected homes and turning them into livable, affordable housing. We plan to rejuvenate pleasant old neighborhoods by building new houses that blend well with existing homes. So yes, I am a landlady but I don't need Compliance Energy to fill my homes. I have to turn away potential tenants at least once a month, sometimes more often.
We have worked very, very hard and in the process we have invested all of our worth in Princeton; on property, on building supplies, appliances, and on local trades contractors. We rarely shop in Penticton or Kelowna. We buy out-of-town only when what we need can not be reasonably obtained here. We want Princeton to prosper! How many other Princeton people can truthfully make that claim?
You seem to think that the decline of old, former prosperous communities is normal, I do not. The Princeton town core has diminished in the three years we have been here compared to other rural and semi-rural towns. Four years ago when we were weighing Princeton, Merritt, Oliver and Osoyoos, Merritt was at par with Princeton for amenities and prices; and look at Merritt now!
And yes, especially in a small town, everyone notices when there is a death in the business family and everyone should grieve.
I have little to gain by supporting Compliance Energy but when I see empty motels and restaurants all winter I can certainly imagine a business community that does. My main gain will simply be the rejuvenation of Princeton so I can maybe buy a dress, a pair of shoes or maybe a new book that interests me. I remember when such things existed here. It has never been my intention to insult Princeton. I simply think we can do better and I have had the courage to say so. If that is an insult then I have sinned.
I should let them speak for themselves, but I can not help but feel anger at the ongoing slander of Maria Sadegur, Pam Jones and Ray Jarvis. They did their duty and investigated similar power facilities. Anyone who finds fault with that has a poor understanding of a councilors civic duties. You warn that their positions on this issue will be remembered at election time. Yes I'm sure it will come up. I too will remember this distasteful mess at election time, and so may others.
I am also appalled by your incredibly rude remarks about the people of Compliance Energy. You may not like them but they are competent professionals.
And you know what, Aurora; from my back porch I watch the coal trucks everyday as they struggle up and down the hill on Tulameen Avenue. They are no louder than the logging trucks and no, they don't bother me a bit.
If you have read my past letters you should realize that I do not deny that there is climate change or global warming. Climate change is a constant, always has and always will be. Overall warming of the planet is also not especially unusual. A warming trend roughly from 900 to 1400 AD was very good for European agriculture and the reversal of that trend was very bad.
I simply do not believe (have your faith) that the prophecies of global warming doom are based on trustworthy scientific research and knowledge.
You seem to feel that you have learned all you need to know from your websites. I suspect you merely have learned what you want to know. I too have looked at many, many websites for solid evidence pro and con on the doomsday climate scenario and find constantly repeated propaganda where links endlessly intertwine and often stem from the same source.
It makes it very difficult to find trustworthy science. Scientists are only human and have their own biases like all of us. Clearly, some are believers but you will find few Earth Scientists among them. Scientists often have competing theories. Only by letting them duke it out can we come up with the most likely truth. Instead we have tried to stifle healthy debate by politicizing a scientific question.
Who do I trust you ask; nobody blindly! I will not jump on anybody's soap box unless I am shown good evidence and that evidence looks reasonable, based on what I know at present. Even then I will investigate further and if what I find still makes sense I will accept the theory until I see proof to the contrary. As I have said before, in science there are few final answers.
If you are curious and persistent you can find many other voices. May I recommend:
Key words: Wikipedia global warming. If you would like to understand the complexity of global warming, this is the most complete and objective site I have found. - http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov NASA Earth Observatory. - http://www.co2science.org Devoted entirely to Carbon Dioxide. -http://www.nrsp.com Natural Resource Stewardship Project, a group of scientists, mostly from Canadian Universities, who hope to bring some true science to light. They have been unable to be heard in Ottawa and are trying to make the public aware that there is another side to the story.
This group has just formed and already they are smeared on the web as deniers-are-us, a reference to Holocaust deniers; that is now the trendiest slur on anyone who dares question climate dogma.
One writer promised that the deniers will be brought to justice at a future Nuremburg trial. I shudder when I picture a world where a zealot like this actually gains power.
I really had not paid much attention to the climate change/global warming rhetoric until the Compliance Energy project arose.
The whole global warming thing did not seem credible to me because I have studied the past and I have studied how the earth works. I never dreamed that so many people had joined this premature crusade. When Compliance Energy came along I truly thought people would be pleased to see an opportunity for Princeton.
I have been told that I am new in town and I just don't understand how Princeton works. That may well be true.
Despite my Psychology Degree, I am also no longer sure that I understand how the world or people work. I don't understand why, en masse, we love to grovel in fear. Maybe that is why scary movies are so successful. In my mere 65 years I have faced the fear of nuclear winter, have been promised a coming ice age, and now I am told that we are all going to fry and die.
Forgive me if my life experience tells me to look a little more closely at predictions of calamity. I did not become a skeptic without good reason.
How has it come to be that all levels of government are to be mistrusted and feared, every employer is a bad guy and every industry is suspect.
When did the world become so paranoid? Is anarchy preferable to democracy?
Somehow, while I had my nose to the grindstone of life, a new world order has come into being! The conspiracy theory eccentrics were right after all!
Notice that very few individuals; few scientists, no political party, no form of media, no government, dare challenge environmental positions any more, no matter how improbable and unproven! They have truly been the master creators of consensus.
Just remember everyone, consensus has led people astray many times in human history. The usual application of consensus, once established, is to squash dissent.
Aurora, I am a skeptic with questions, not a heretic to be reviled. This is not yet a Holy War. I am still entitled to my point of view and you are entitled to your belief.
You have tried to discredit me by turning my words into some sort of sarcastic joke.
I now have to live up to my new label.
You will not tongue lash Karinsma; lone warrior, into silence!
- Karin Green, Princeton
