Heed pope’s advice on climate change
As
the Pope comes to visit the U.S. and we head toward the Paris Climate Summit
later this year, it is worthwhile to reflect on a simple fact: people in
positions of knowledge and authority, including the pope, have begun to take the
science demonstrating human-caused climate change seriously.
Although
many political and media figures in the U.S. continue to claim that this is just
foolishness on the part of tree huggers, and some even engage in conspiracy
theories about scientists, the recent papal encyclical is only one of many
documents from well-respected sources that urge us to take immediate action to
avert climate change disaster.
These
sources include the Department of Defense, NASA, manufacturing consortiums,
insurance companies, and even Citibank. Many fossil-fuel companies are also
aware of the problem and, looking to the future, have actually begun requesting
carbon pricing.
These
military and business interests echo the pope in asking us all to take our heads
out of the sand. As we in the Valley look at our depleting aquifers, ongoing
drought and increasingly severe forest fires, it is time we heed this
advice.
Matt Armstrong
September 25, 2015
http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article36461562.html
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