Healthy planet is worthy gift we can all help to give

I’ve been pondering what to get my grandkids for Christmas. And I suddenly realized that one thing I would love to give them is a livable world.

Climate change is upon us with a vengeance. Droughts, flooding, mammoth wildfires, extreme temperatures — the world is rapidly becoming less livable for human communities and the farms and ecosystems on which they depend.

Of course, I’ll need a lot of help in providing “my” gift… help from people I know and people I don’t know, from the country I live in and most of the others. But if enough of us work really hard, we just might be able to provide my grandkids, and everybody else’s, with a healthy planet.

DAN MAY, ATLANTA

Luckovich: Biden is not Santa Claus

Mike Luckovich, Editorial, Dec. 12, portrays Senators Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema as disobedient reindeer stopping Santa Joe Biden from delivering a sleigh full of goodies to the U.S. Does Mr. Luckovich understand where these goodies come from? They are not gifts from Santa Biden to the masses. Rather, current and future taxpayers would be footing the massive bill. Further, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s recent scoring of the Build Back Better bill without the Democrats’ accounting manipulations, this bill could add $3 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. These wasteful goodies, along with the rest of the staggering national debt, ultimately will be paid by our children and their descendants.

Overall, Build Back Better sounds like a giant lump of coal in our national stocking. I hope the two Senate reindeer will stand strong and kill this bill.

DANA R. HERMANSON, MARIETTA

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In this photo from 1997, then-U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga. (in wheelchair), and fellow senators (left to right) Bob Kerrey, D-Neb.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; Charles Hagel, R-Neb.; John Kerry, D-Mass.; and Chuck Robb, D-Va. walk along the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall behind the wreath they would lay to commemorate the 15th anniversary of groundbreaking for the memorial. All six senators served in Vietnam, and Cleland lost both legs and an arm in that war. (Rick McKay/Washington Bureau)

Credit: Rick McKay

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Passengers wait at a Delta check-in counter at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. It was the first day the Federal Aviation Administration cut flight capacity at airports during the government shutdown. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com