Dear Editor:
If climate change is a problem, "... we will engineer solutions" says Dan Tschirgi in a Jan. 31 letter. The latest report from the IPPC's 2,000-plus climate scientists says if we persist for another 15 years on the current path, there is no known solution to preventing ecological disaster. Are we betting on a miracle?
Citizens of the world were justifiably concerned after Nagasaki and Hiroshima when man took the power to end all life on this planet out of God's hands. Today you hear repeatedly that man could not destroy the planet by his actions. That's not true! We are fully capable of destroying our civilization by our actions. Everywhere you look you can see how we have changed the environment.
Today we are drugged into indifference. History's greatest propaganda coup is being perpetrated on us. The reason is simply greed. Three years ago I attended the Buffet stockholder's meeting. Warren and his partner Charley Munger are two of America's 400-plus billionaires. Their stock holding company owns Burlington Northern, which brings coal through our city, and has invested in the XL pipeline. Munger said that "We will have to deal with the environment someday, but not now."
This is wrong precisely because climate change is not like overeating. Become too fat and you can decide to back off and lose weight. This is what 80 percent of my friends think about the environment. When the time comes we will have to bite the bullet. Wrong. It will be too late. There is the fly wheel effect. A large ocean liner cannot be turned on a dime. The damage we're doing to the planet's environment has to stop now. It will take centuries or more to reverse the damage. Waiting till every person on the planet agrees would be disastrous.
From November 2012 to December 2013 there have been 2,259 studies from 9,137 scientists peer reviewed. Only one departed from man-made climate change being a significant issue. Many Tribune letters talk of "reports" claiming climate change is a false issue or a hoax. Those are not legitimate scientific studies. Sorry friends, you are being misled. I am sure that is unsettling to your faith in the millionaire media celebrities that are your sources.
Instead of accepting the challenge ahead, we are sticking our heads in the sand. We need to work together and get busy on solutions.
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