Focus climate change lobbying on helping people

In his letter "Support efforts to combat climate change by lobbying," Jim Willard states that "98 percent of climate scientists" say that climate change is primarily caused by man's burning of fossil fuels.

He could have said 100 percent since all competent climate scientists know that humans contribute to climate change through land-use change (e.g., urbanization), pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

But that is not the real issue. Instead, the key question is, "Do the relevant scientists agree that our greenhouse gas emissions will cause dangerous climate change?" Only if it will be dangerous should this be a public policy concern. No one knows the answer to this question since such a poll has never been conducted.

Meanwhile, aid agencies are unable to adequately support vulnerable people being effected by climate change today. Because of overconfidence of groups like the Citizens' Climate Lobby about our ability to predict and even control future climate, 94 percent of the more than $1 billion per day spent worldwide on climate finance is dedicated to mitigation, trying to affect events that may, or may not, someday happen.

One reason for this imbalance is that mitigation projects are far more profitable for large corporations than are the smaller scale boots-on-the-ground strategies needed to help populations adapt.

We may never properly understand the causes of climate change or its future trajectory, but we do know that people need help now. Let's focus our lobbying efforts there.

Tom Harris, Executive Director, International Climate Science Coalition

Ottawa, Ontario

This story was originally published May 4, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Focus climate change lobbying on helping people ."