Changing climate demands action
Regarding “Think twice before buying the SUV” (Opinion, Feb. 4), cars and trucks produce nearly 20 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions. That’s the pollution 97 percent of climate scientists say is causing global warming. Scientists also warn it severely threatens our future.
Climate disruption often seems too big and frightening to overcome. But the carbon fee and dividend proposed in the essay is a market based, no-government-growth approach that can rapidly reduce emissions and slow warming while producing jobs. Despite this, on the same page, both the Heartland Institute and Thomas Sowell deny climate change and encourage reckless behavior. It’s time to accept reality. Climate change is serious, it’s here and we must act now.
JEFF JOSLIN, ATLANTA
Things to do if you like to breathe
I grew up in Los Angeles. I remember feeling ill each year when summer approached and smog was at its worst. As part of my nurses’ training, I took a pulmonary function test. The test revealed I had only 50 percent lung function. I’ve never been a smoker, nor did I grow up in a smoking household. The technician explained that it was most likely due to the smog I had lived in my entire life.
I have lived in Atlanta since 1997. In that time, I have seen the fights over expanding MARTA, worsening traffic and sky-high rates of asthma and allergies. We have to get serious about improving our environment. Here’s what I’d like to see us do: Promote expanded public transportation to decrease traffic; promote alternatives to fossil fuels, such as solar and wind power; and place a fee on carbon that will be passed on to each consumer who can then use that money to pay for solar panels, etc. I want to breathe. Don’t you?
DEBRA GREENWOOD, STONE MOUNTAIN
We all must make end-of-life decision
“Let’s discuss Grandma’s care” (Opinion, Feb. 7) argues well for compassionate care for the elderly and for the responsibility of caregivers and society to provide it. As a 70-year-old whose mother died in a nursing home and whose father died in a hospital, I believe we elderly also have a responsibility to accept the inevitability of death and to talk about it with our families.
Grandma needs to discuss her own care while she still can. We elderly also need to think about what we want that care to be. Recognizing when living ends and dying begins is difficult; we will vary in our criteria. Once that threshold is crossed, however, accepting the inevitability of death means accepting the mechanism by which it comes. If it is refusal to eat or infection, there is no obligation to treat. Sometimes, allowing death is the most compassionate thing.
DAVID H. LAWSON, DECATUR
