Letters, Aug. 13: High-speed rail to Portland means a greener future
Credit to Author: Stephen Snelgrove| Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2019 01:00:10 +0000
I strongly support having high-speed rail linking our city with Seattle and Portland. As a person who cares for our planet, it is the environmental benefits that get me excited for having high-speed rail linking these three cities.
Having high-speed rail would cut travel time in half compared to what it is by car. It currently takes five hours or longer to get to Portland. A high-speed train linking these three cities at 200 mph would cut that time to just under two hours.
Having high-speed rail would mean less car traffic on the I5 corridor between here and Portland. Less car traffic means less lineups at the border crossings. Less car traffic also means less greenhouse gases. Less greenhouse gases means clean air for our children. Less greenhouse gases means less dependency on fossil fuels. Less dependency on fossil fuels means no fossil projects such as the Trans Mountain pipeline or LNG. Less greenhouse gases means:
• B.C. can reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gases below 2007 levels by 2050.
• Washington state can reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gases below 1990 levels by 2035.
• Oregon can reduce greenhouse gases below 1990 levels by 2050.
• Countries on both sides of the border can rejoin the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
Let’s get this thing built as soon as possible. That way we can have clean air for future generations and get back on track with the Paris agreement.
Ian Dewar McPherson, Richmond
Five lives taken, four young people and an older man. Why? We will probably never know what happened on that remote road in northern British Columbia or what possessed a couple of teenage boys to kill a UBC professor and a young couple who were on what was meant to be the trip of a lifetime.
But we can be fairly certain what happened to those boys’ minds to make them commit such violence.
We know only a little of the life of one young man and nothing at all of the other. From what we have been told in the media it is fairly certain that television and violent video games are more than a little responsible for destroying these five lives and the lives of their families.
Will the peddlers of this violence and trash ever have to face up to their crimes and be brought to justice? Definitely, but not in this lifetime.
Doris Riedweg, Langley
The Canada goose population in Vancouver is out of control.
Last night, my family went to Vanier Park to enjoy the Celebration of Light fireworks. Everywhere we looked there was goose excrement littering the grass area. If you wanted to sit down, you first had to kick away dried goose droppings to claim your space. A few weeks ago we were walking on the False Creek seawall, and we had to tiptoe our way through a sea of goose dung.
Vancouver is a very beautiful city. Tourists flock here to enjoy the outdoors and scenery of our fine city. Instead they must keep a sharp eye out on the ground in front of them for fear of stepping into goose turds. This is a disgrace, and a blight on our beautiful city.
City council had better come up with a solution to this problem, because at the current rate of escalation, it is only going to get worse.
Herb Mills, Vancouver
In the 1970s environmentalists were concerned the use of paper bags was going to deforest the world. The solution since the 1980s was to use disposable plastic bags.
Today, the environmentalists are saying that disposable plastic bags are destroying the environment. Let’s not go back to the ’70s. Instead, why not ban bags altogether and go to customer-supplied reusable washable cotton bags, totes or carts?
Geoff Fairfax, Surrey
Letters to the editor should be sent to sunletters@vancouversun.com. The editorial pages editor is Gordon Clark, who can be reached at gclark@postmedia.com.
CLICK HERE to report a typo.
Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.