Letter to the editor: When will we wake up to climate reality?

I believe that there are very few of us who don’t understand that the climate crisis is now on our doorstep and, in many cases, has come crashing through, in the form of drought, fire, flood and famine. Just ask the folks in south Florida. And yet the Associated Press article “Carbon dioxide levels in atmosphere shoot past key milestone” (June 3, TribLIVE) indicates that fossil-fuel emissions in 2021 drove us to 421 parts per million, 50% higher than pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

According to the International Energy Agency, we dumped 36 billion tons of fossil-fuel emissions into the atmosphere last year, second only to 2019 because we’re still slowly recovering from the covid-19 pandemic.

When will we wake up? If we are to preserve a livable planet for future generations, we simply must drastically cut our emissions to ensure that we are “net-zero,” removing as many emissions from the atmosphere as we add, by 2050.

In the U.S., we are very close to passing legislation that includes $555 billion to combat climate change. Citizens’ Climate Lobby is pushing for that legislation to include a “price on carbon” as the best way to cut emissions. But what is most important is having the Senate pass this most urgent legislation.

Please take a few minutes to call your senators, urging them to vote “yea.”

Bruce Cooper

Cranberry Township

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The writer is group leader of the Slippery Rock chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.