Letters to the Editor: Fossil-fuel polluters put money over the planet. Tax them into smithereens
To the editor: Jordan Thomas' powerful and poignant op-ed article on intensifying wildfires amid accelerated fossil-fuel consumption is a must-read for every living person.
Each one of us is having a life of previously unknown riches, all brought by the burning of fossil fuels. The relentless use of fossil fuels created the monster that is climate change, and now it will be our salvation.
Tax the fossil fuel industry and its financiers to smithereens. This dramatic action will fund the transition to sustainable economies run on renewables and help the families suffering losses from all extreme weather events. We can do this. We must do this.
We only need to stop listening to people who somehow imagine money is more important than the very planet that sustains us. As Thomas points out, climate change disasters are only growing in intensity, destruction and frequency, and these people need to realize they (and their children) will either die out in an increasingly damaged environment, or they will join us. Those are the only two choices.
One way or another, we will stop pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Mother Earth will not let us destroy her.
JJ Flowers, Dana Point
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To the editor: Just 20,000 years ago, much of North America was buried under an ice sheet that reached Nebraska. Pacific Palisades now resembles cities firebombed in World War II. This is the power of the atmosphere, which exceeds that unleashed in any world war.
U.S. leaders, influenced by oil money, have consistently shirked their duty to protect us from polluters. We must marshal a national mindset appropriate to what we have known about climate change since the 1980s.
Don't be distracted or deflected by cynical nonsense. Become a political 'intensifier.' Demand that your congressional representatives ambitiously respond to climate change, regardless of how much the fossil fuel industry donates to their campaigns. Any lawmaker voting to weaken or dismantle the Inflation Reduction Act should lose their next election.
Gary Stewart, Laguna Beach
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