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To the Editor:
The editorial page citations on whether humans are the main cause of climate change should include the observations of writers like Peter Brennen who, in “The Ends Of The World”, notes that past extinctions have “frightening echoes in our own world - which is undergoing changes not seen for tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, of years.”
Brennen continues, “Today humanity busies itself by digging up hundreds of millions of years of carbon buried by ancient life and ignites it all at once at the surface, in pistons and power plants - the vast diffuse metabolism of modern civilization. If we see this task to completion and burn it all - supercharging the atmosphere like an artificial super volcano - it will get very hot, as it has before. The hottest heat waves experienced today will become the average, while future heat waves will push many parts of the world into uncharted territory, taking on a new menace that will surpass the hard limits of human physiology.”
Climate deniers only delay what the world must do to lower the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere. The world is shifting into this reality. The U.S. military is aware of the threat of climate-related conflicts, Black Rock now requires all investors to factor in the damage of climate on their products, and global insurance industries are tightening up on what and how much they will cover for weather-related storms. Coastal cities are building barriers against rising water levels caused by warming oceans and General Motors head Mary Bara is deep-sixing gasoline combustion engines in favor of a large slate of electric vehicles. Ford is doing the same for its F150 pick-up line-up.
Readers can continue arguing about human culpability, but the planet is in crisis and we all must get on board to keep the global temperature from rising any higher.
Sue Ann Moline Larson
Waukon High School
Class of 1965
Sun Prairie, WI