Canadian public broadcaster CBC has lamented that the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine may “distract” the general public from the issues of climate change.
In an opinion article entitled ‘The war in Ukraine Threatens to Distract us From the Climate Crisis’, CBC writer Aaron Wherry complained that “climate action isn’t something governments can set aside when it’s inconvenient.”
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine does not change the fact of climate change,” Wherry intoned, noting that a Canadian mayor had called on the federal government not to increase the Canadian federal carbon tax as energy prices soar in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Wherry also noted that Canada could be in a good position to provide liquified natural gas (LNG) and oil to Europe, which is largely reliant on Russian exports, but insisted “pipelines aren’t the answer” regarding a conservative proposal to build an eastern pipeline to export LNG to Europe.
“[B]uilding a pipeline is easier said than done — and even in an ideal scenario it doesn’t seem like a short-term solution,” Wherry insisted, concluding by saying that “The war in Ukraine is profoundly important. But the battle against climate change still has to be fought.”
Wherry is not the only member of the mainstream media to compare the war in Ukraine to climate change. Last week, in the Los Angeles Times newspaper, letters editor Paul Thornton wrote that “The Biden administration and the rest of us have the capacity to address both crises vigorously while acknowledging that the gratuitous death and disruption inflicted on 44 million Ukrainians pose graver immediate consequences for a lot of people right now, whereas climate change looms over every problem faced by humanity.”
POLITICO has also suggested links between the war in Ukraine and climate change, stating: “The war in Ukraine is tied to the climate crisis in multiple ways. The aggressor is a petrostate whose long-term economic future depends on slow action to cut emissions. Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas is driving rival conversations about accelerating clean energy and exploring new, alternative sources for fossil fuels.”