Climate change must be fought

By Tom Harper, Henderson

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 | 2 a.m.

I read with incredulity a May 15 letter in which the author argued that President Donald Trump’s changes in the EPA would not result in dirtier air and polluted waters. The author further stated that based on his 40 years of experience in the insurance business, the power of the EPA was unchecked and the time was right to rein in the EPA.

The obvious fallacy of this argument is that Trump is not attempting to rein in the EPA but rather wants to gut it via numerous executive orders to rescind EPA regulations. Furthermore, he’s even contemplating withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change, which many political and business leaders believe will have dire and catastrophic consequences.

The real victims in gutting the EPA will be my children and grandchildren as well as the author’s progeny.

I submit that reasons for expanding the powers of the EPA are most compelling and include but are not limited to: 1) 3.7 million U.S. residents in 2,150 coastal areas could be battered by damaging floods by global warming with sea levels rising by 19 inches by 2050; 2) Melting of arctic glaciers causing significant increases in sea levels and arctic precipitation projected to increase by 20 percent and; 3). Increases in U.S. and global temperatures with the year 2012 being the warmest in the contiguous United States and 2015 being the second warmest.

While as a baby boomer I have more yesterdays than tomorrows, I genuinely fear for my children’s future because of climate change. And based on the hard facts stated above, I trust that the author will heed Bob Dylan’s famous lyric, “You don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

For the sake of our children and grandchildren, let the EPA do its job.