Pete Moe - 3-9-2016 - GOP ignores climate change at our peril

GOP ignores climate change at our peril

March 9, 2016
The most recent Republican presidential debate was entertaining, yet highly unpresidential. I want my elected officials to be serious about serious issues. One of the most serious issues ignored by these candidates was climate change and how to address it.
“Mideast drought worst in 900 years” was the story in The Bee on March 4.
NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies concluded that the years from 1998 to 2012 were drier than any other period, and that the drought was likely caused by humans.
Earlier this year, The Bee reported that in the years 2012-2014, the drought in California was the most severe we have experienced in at least 1,200 years. That report was written by researchers at Massachusetts’ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. On Feb. 23, The Bee reported that “Sea levels on Earth are rising several times faster than they have in the past 2,800 years and are accelerating because of man-made global warming.”
It is time for our elected leaders to remember the value of science, quit denying the human impact on global warming, and get back to compromising on political answers to address these climate issues.

Pete Moe, Clovis

http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article64764967.html

http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article64764967.html
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Matt Armstrong - 3-7-2016 - Climate-change believers include GOP

Climate-change believers include GOP

With the news that the governor is open to putting a price on greenhouse gas pollution, I hope that we are not looking forward to the usual political and media claims that efforts to fight climate change belong solely to the political left.
Citizens Climate lobby includes former Republican Congressman Bob Inglis, and Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, George Schulz. Both of these icons of conservative politics recognize the need to act in the interest of the United States in fighting climate change.
They are not alone – GOP Rep. Chris Gibson of New York has introduced House Resolution 424 specifically calling on Republicans to act on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, and even Newt Gingrich has said, at an event sponsored by Politico, that “anyone who underestimates the impact of humans on the planet is just kidding themselves.”
This has been turned into a political issue by special interests who have pumped money into the system. This shouldn’t be, and it needn’t be. If these conservative figures can face the facts and urge action, then certainly conservative citizens can do the same.

Matt Armstrong, Fresno

 http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article64113697.html

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Robert Merrill - 3-3-2016 - Pay attention to rising sea level

Pay attention to rising sea level

March 3, 2016

The “Report: Sea level rise is most in 28 centuries,” Feb. 23 article should be placed on every U.S. congressperson’s desk, especially “climate change deniers.” The climate change-caused increase in rate of sea-level rise is significant and important.
Sea-level rise in this century and beyond will impact our national economic well being as the bulk of international commerce depends on seaports. Naval and Coast Guard installations are similarly located. Imagine the costs of moving these many facilities, including their landward transportation connections, as the sea level rises. At the same time we consider these costs, recall Congress’ reluctance to budget sufficiently for replacing deteriorating bridges and highways. Why do our politicians, including Republican Party presidential candidates, fail to address these issues?
Finally, consider cities and towns built on low-lying islands and coastal plains less than a foot or two above current sea level. What will be the costs to protect them, or should they be abandoned? What about coastal-plain agriculture and our food supply?
The longer we postpone addressing climate change, the greater the economic costs and societal disruptions. Goodbye, Miami, and more.

Robert Merrill, emeritus professor of geology, Fresno

http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article63786907.html

 

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