Climate help needed now to prevent future damage

Earth Day has passed, and we go back to business as usual.

Hundreds of years ago, our planet was pristine with unbounded wildlife, glorious landscapes and unpolluted waters. Then, mankind progressed at the expense of the earth’s natural resources and climate. The reckoning is just slow enough to hide our destiny.

Scientists provided the warning and are striving for solutions, while our precious lifestyle, political shortsightedness and entrenched capitalist greed take more than the world can give.

Do you stand on the side of future generations and our planet?

Environment activists cannot do it alone. This is your earth to love or destroy with your votes, attitudes and behaviors. Money spent on climate and pollution now will prevent many multiples of costs to repair the accumulating damage. Spend a dollar now to avoid spending hundreds later.

Demand justice and foresight! The choice is yours.

JOHN SHACKLETON, ATLANTA

Jan. 6 coup was the only real threat to our Constitution

All life has a beginning and an end, and the end is assured at the beginning. That is difficult to accept, but not too hard to comprehend for most people. It’s the in-between time that has so many vagaries and requires so much decision-making.

Unfortunately, too many people try to decide how other people should live and how they should fill their allotted hours. In America, the mitigating factor is our Constitution. It is the document our forebears devised so we could address our differences in the courtroom instead of on the battlefield. It has worked remarkably well for almost 236 years, except for the Civil War.

It will go on working as long as the truth remains the truth and not something divined solely to hold on to political power.

The only real threat to our Constitution and democracy in history was the January 6 failed coup. Had this coup been successful, we would have had the beginning of a dictatorship that would have eventually destroyed everything our forebears compromised to achieve.

C.R. VANTREESE, MARIETTA

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Public Service Commission candidate Peter Hubbard talks with a supporter during an election night party thrown by Georgia Conservation Voters in Southwest Atlanta on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. He won his race against incumbent Fitz Johnson.  Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal

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Travelers walk around the baggage claim in the South Terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. Atlanta is among the airports where the FAA will reduce flights due to the shutdown, and airports are facing a shortage of air traffic controllers. 
(Miguel Martinez/ AJC)

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez