To the editor:
I would like to respectfully address Mr. Ross Wilkinson, who wrote (Jan. 7) that he thinks the climate crisis is a fraud. Mr. Wilkinson, I’d like to understand you better. You raise genuine questions. I hope you will respond, because the lack of real dialogue is damaging us all. I would like to know if we can find any common ground, because in fact, we are all in this boat together.
Maybe you feel as I do – worried? Angry? Wishing these extreme weather events would go away? Wanting to find someone to blame? Numb? Clearly, science can be used to justify anyone’s views. Not being scientists, it can be hard for us to judge which facts/sources are reliable.
So I won’t argue science – but what about the news? How do you feel when you read about unprecedented fires in Australia? Do you think nothing will happen in your neighborhood?
If I hear you right, you believe (1) that those of us who worry about the climate crisis are either alarmists, victims of alarmists, or intentionally fraudulent, and (2) that some of us have an agenda of money or power. How do you think we might benefit? According to my understanding, fossil fuel companies receive thirteen times the subsidies that renewables do, so it seems to me that those who are directly profiting from creating the climate crisis are the fossil fuel companies, not citizens.
How would you feel about having a pipeline in your backyard, in your river, knowing that all of them leak sooner or later?
Do you have children? What do they think? Wishing we could work together.
Sincerely,
Mariah O’Neill
Peterborough