Fossil fuels are burned that spew carbon into the atmosphere, which accelerates the melting of polar ice caps, which opens up the Northwest Passage as a shipping route, which allows for quicker shipment and subsequent burning of fossil fuels which, in turn, accelerates the amount of carbon being spewed into the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, companies and individuals who seek to profit most from this positive feedback loop are the very ones who obscure the fact that there’s any issue at all. Has there ever been a greater confluence of hubris and ecological ignorance?

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Note: This appeared as a letter to the editor in The Globe & Mail.