Letter: White House ignores its own climate report

Friday October 19, 2018

Overlooking peril today will lead to disaster tomorrow.

Editor:
The Trump administration, in a 500-page environmental impact statement, has concluded, for the first time, that human influence has been the dominant cause of global warming since the mid-20th century and that coal and methane gas are the prime contributors.


The intergovernmental panel on climate change, composed of 91 scientists from 40 countries and analyzing 6,000 scientific studies, has also confirmed our worst fears that this is happening faster than first expected. This will have catastrophic consequences that we are already beginning to experience and could reach crisis levels as soon as 2040. This will include worsening food shortages, increased wildfires, more devastating hurricanes and mass die-off of marine life, to name only a few.


Yet instead of finding viable solutions such as carbon fees that already have been enacted in one form or another by Canada, the European Union, China and California, among others, the administration has chosen to encourage the burning of coal, roll back support for clean energy and call for decreased emissions standards for cars. In addition, the process is underway to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.


By 2040 I will probably be long gone, but my grandchildren and their children will be left to deal with the dire consequences of our failure to act responsibly and ethically toward future generations and our God-given planet. How sad. How tragic.


Arthur E. Grim
St. Lawrence


White House ignores its own climate report