The buck stops everywhere
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My response to Sarah Gilman's opinion piece "If not here, where?" is: Nowhere. Although oil and gas exploration and recovery has advanced technologically, the basic concept of burning carbon for heat, light and more recently transportation is archaic. And now it's evident that the resulting climate instability threatens the survival of human civilization. The series of extreme weather events in recent years is exhaustive, both in magnitude and frequency, and has catastrophic economic and social consequences.
Americans are greatly concerned about federal debt and its impact on future generations. Yet money and debt are social constructs that the citizens or the ruling elite can change. Changes to the chemistry of the atmosphere impact the availability of food and water and may be irreversible. We not only need to go on an energy diet, we need to make a switch to renewable energy as quickly as we put humans on the moon -- a giant leap that took less than a decade. We already have the technology to switch to wind and solar. Germany is well on its way to ending its dependence on fossil fuels. We can be leaders or hesitant followers. Why is the fossil fuel industry so afraid of change?
Peter Prandoni
Santa Fe, New Mexico
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