Elected leaders who will address climate
To the Editor:
Our EMS and fire departments, law-enforcement and many in serving military units have come to our region’s rescue. They and caring ordinary neighbors who have put on their boots and gloves and helped so many people in desperate need are our heroes.
Public officials like Mayors Zeb Smathers, Esther Mannheim, and countless others, continue to work tirelessly for their communities. We can never thank them enough.
Sadly, bodies are still being found. Isolated communities and families are still being rescued. What happened is overwhelming. So, it is difficult to shift any bit of our focus to the long-term questions right now. But there are urgent issues that need attention.
Ivan, Charles, Frances, Fred, Helene. In 20 years these five storms have cruelly struck us here in Western North Carolina. In the 1980s a $1 billion climate disaster in the United States occurred every 80 days. It is now every 18 days. It is very unlikely that we will see any let up in the frequency and intensity of these storms. Surface water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico can now exceed 100 degrees and this produces hurricanes of enormous power. This is a direct result of the release into the Earth’s atmosphere of over 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year, from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, methane and gasoline.
But we now have the engineering and scientific knowledge to make the transition to clean energy. This will take several decades. We will of course need to burn fossil fuels for the immediate future. But we must decide now if climate change is real or just a hoax. It’s as simple as believing either our own eyes or talking heads on cable and the internet.
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This year’s elections, at every level, will determine if our society takes the needed steps to create a cleaner, safer future. If we elect those who refuse to address the challenges of climate change, generations to come will pay a terrible price. We need leadership that will guide our society to a future that is safer, cleaner and prosperous.
Stephen Wall
Waynesville
