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Something scary

Mr. Howard Casselberry’s recent letter regarding climate change underscores the lack of understanding so many people have about that subject. He seems to have some fond memories of the coal industry. His recollection of the significant positive impacts of the coal industry on this nation, both in war and in peace, is accurate but incomplete.

He fails to mention the impacts on coal miners from accidents and long-term health, the cruelty of the coal company-owned mining towns, the environmental devastation that remains with us even today, and obviously is unaware that the burning of coal and other fossil fuels has caused the earth’s average temperature to increase.

Climate change is not the opinion of “extremist environmentalists”, as he puts it, but rather the conclusion of the vast majority of credible scientists worldwide. Interestingly, page A-6 of the same newspaper as his letter had an AP article about conclusions of the United Nations World Meteorological Organization. This article stated the extreme worldwide weather events of the past year are “consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change” and that “13 of the 14 warmest years on record have occurred in the 21st century”.

We must, as a world community, take seriously the dire consequences of climate change in its extreme sea level rises that inundate coastal cities; worldwide crop failures due to temperature, drought, and flooding; catastrophic weather patterns; and significant population shifts from affected countries and the strife that comes with the movement of millions of refugees, to name the most significant.

One only has to review the contingency planning of the U.S. Department of Defense to read just how serious this country’s military views climate change, despite that it is “not a real factor”. What our own military envisions is truly something scary.

Dan Alters

Hughesville

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom

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