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Letters to the Editor

Revere Mother Earth

To the Journal editor:

The 50th annual Earth Day, with its celebration, recommendations and thought provoking vision(s), has come and gone.

Mother’s Day has passed.

Many will remember this Earth Day event as something to celebrate because people do come together to honor this orbiting home. The recommendations made can be modified for each of our abilities to keep life sustainable. Take care of the Earth and Mother Earth can take care of you. And as each of us are individuals our thought provoking take away will be as well.

This planet earth is huge and will be around for an immeasurable amount of time. Air quality soil depleted and toxic water will not end the earth’s existence. But it is currently having a debilitating impact on life.

While we’ve been thoroughly distracted by the yet uncontrolled coronavirus, roll backs to the Clean Air Act are being aggressively pursued. Generations of people have suffered the respiratory health pathologies residing in environments in proximity to extractive industries and landfills containing hazardous materials.

Moving away from this scourge is not an option. Often these populations are the least economically advantaged. We can all expect an increase of respiratory conditions with roll backs to clean air protections. Compromised health has been a contributing cause of the deaths of all who’ve been infected by the COVID-19.

Deforestation by industry, added to fires, exasperated by climate change and warming polar regions leave life sustaining soil bare to be washed away. Gardeners know soil, preferably chemical free, is needed to grow food.

Enjoy your hikes through the woods while we have them.

Water seems readily available to many but not so for many others. In addition to being necessary to stay alive through hydration water has had a history of being part of our hygiene practices. Water has been good to have on hand especially now.

I believe we can all get this right; caring more for our environment in our day to day lives and spending and voting. I hope we can get what we need to do to stop the coronavirus, at least by the second time around. From near Chi Gumee,

ROSA MUSKET

Marquette

Story was welcome respite

To the Journal editor:

Many thanks to The Mining Journal and Heather Mlsna for sharing with us the fascinating information on “Area chicken marks milestone birthday.”

That item was such a welcome relief from the dire news we have had to endure the past few months. Here’s wishing Stella a happy golden birthday.

MARIAN STORDAHL

Marquette

US leadership badly needed

To the Journal editor:

According to United Nations Climate Change, on May 3 “the highest ever greenhouse gas concentration in history was observed at Mauna Loa Observatory: 418.12 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere.”

How is this possible when this terrible pandemic has interrupted energy demand and emissions have been temporarily reduced?

Stopping the rise in CO2 concentrations requires net zero CO2 emissions. Net zero carbon dioxide emissions means reducing emissions enough that they are balanced by CO2 removal, such as being absorbed by forests and dissolved in the oceans, otherwise the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will continue to grow.

And notably, about half of the carbon dioxide we emit stays in the atmosphere for centuries or more.

One lesson from the COVID-19 crisis is to respect catastrophic risk. Nassim Nicholas Taleb coined the term “black swan” to describe an unexpected, high-impact event. He’s the coauthor of a January 26 paper on the coronavirus that concludes: “Decision-makers must act swiftly and avoid the fallacy that to have an appropriate respect for uncertainty in the face of possible irreversible catastrophe amounts to ‘paranoia.'”

The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act has been introduced in the House of Representatives, and it would provide an insurance policy on climate change. This bipartisan bill puts a steadily rising price on carbon dioxide emissions and returns the money to the American people.

It’s crucial for the United States to take a leadership role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This time, let’s heed the warnings.

TERRY HANSEN

Hales Corner, Wisconsin

Republicans on wrong path

To the Journal editor:

With the rise of the far right and radical right, we not only have been experiencing the growth of “Survival of the Fittest” social Darwinist ideology in today’s national Republican Party featuring their desire not only to cut and reduce spending on all of the federal government social programs that help the middle and lower classes (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, college student loans) but we also get their growing cold-hearted desire to abolish all of them. They try to keep (this) secret from the American people as authors Jane Mayer and Nancy MacLean have well-documented by pointing out that they often use “stealth tactics” which are a part of what Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman characterizes as their “Bad Faith.”

And along with this, we get what Alfred Hitchcock referred to as “Brutality With A Smile.”

An example of this was when Presidential candidate Donald Trump literally mocked, made fun of, insulted, disrespected, and humiliated candidate Carly Fiorina by shouting “Look at that face!”

I still find it hard to believe that any human being could have been so cruel, sadistic, and abusive as to humiliate another human being like that, especially a very accomplished woman who has had to bury a child as a result of drug addiction and who has had to experience having a double mastectomy. Ms. Fiorina has suffered greatly in life, and did not deserve to be abused and publically humiliated like that. No one does.

But as someone who believes in God and who converted to Christianity in 1980, I believe that ultimately we are all held accountable and will be held accountable for how we have treated others in life, and that includes a right-wing, serial spouse-cheater, and dirtbag like Donald Trump.

STEWART B. EPSTEIN

Rochester, New York

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