elissasmith.ca

Father Christmas just sent me a letter that he wanted me to put on my personal website.

“Dear Children,

As many of you know, this time of year is very busy for me: reading all your letters, seeing who has been naughty and nice, and finding out what you have asked for from me for Christmas. The elves are already busy making the dolls, train sets and computer games (ahh, for simpler times!).

Though we are very busy with all these preparations, it has been a difficult year here in the North Pole. I wanted to share with you some worries I have.

Dancer broke a leg earlier in the year, but is now all better and prancing to go this Christmas. It all happened because the ice was weaker than expected and he fell. I had been noticing that the weather had been changing over the past ten years, which makes delivering the presents increasingly difficult each year. So I decided to find out what was happening. Do you know what I found out? It is this thing called Climate Change! Blimey!

I hadn’t realised how much damage all this travelling around had been doing and how much our lifestyles have impacted on the earth. It seems to me that we are rushing to disaster. But you might say: “what does he know? He’s just Father Christmas!” Well, I read these Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Reports- have to say they were a little boring (zzzzz)- but all these scientists from around the world are saying the same thing and each report they produce says things are getting worse.

I have to say it put the frighteners under me. I thought ‘what can do?’ I am just one person and a lot of elves and reindeers. The first thing I did was to find out what my carbon footprint is. Well blimey- it was a lot!!! So then I got these people in to do an energy assessment of our operations here. They found that most of the energy needs of my grotto can be delivered by renewable energy!

So this year there has been lots of building work around the grotto. We now have a wind turbine powering most of the workshop and the housing. The reindeer have fun racing around it. I bought nifty electric cars for the elves to move around in, and a small methane collector for the… well, you know! With reindeer we do get a lot of methane, which we can now use for the heating.

Fortunately, with reindeer powering the sleigh, my air travel is not contributing to Climate Change. For my holiday travel, I have offset the carbon use with Future Forests. I am proud to say that though we have not reduced our fossil uses completely, we are close to doing so. I always say, where there is a will there is a way!

And that brings me to the plea: I don’t understand why the upcoming meeting on Climate Change in Montreal is not planning for a complete phasing out of fossil fuels over the next fifty years. I read that President Bush doesn’t believe that Climate Change is happening and that he cites reports by scientists that support his theory. Well, I thought I had better read them as well and you know what? These scientists seem to get a lot of money from Exxon Mobile who doesn’t seem to believe that Climate Change is happening either! Well, the reports weren’t very believable so I am staying with the IPCC reports. Surely it is better to be err on the side of caution!

So, I am asking all of you children and adults out there to let President Bush and other world leaders know your views on Climate Change. Maybe they will show some political will and if not…. I definitely know some people who will not deserve getting any presents on Christmas day!

Have a wonderful merry Christmas,

Father Christmas”