Give renewable energy an opportunity to thrive

Thank you to Jennifer Hemmingsen for her recent articles on climate change, and for the columns on the Keystone XL pipeline on May 2 (by Wally Taylor, Quentin Wagenfield).

There are still people who do not know about the pipeline or how significant and damaging it would be if it were built. Apart from the direct environmental damage to water and land while being constructed or when it would leak, the amount of carbon dioxide released by burning this heavy bitumen would contribute to the ever-increasing heating of the earth's atmosphere.

In the same issue, you printed an article based on research from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography that states the amount of greenhouse gases have peaked at nearly 400 parts per million at Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Above 450 parts per million there is real danger for life on the earth in terms of even greater droughts and floods and wildfires than we are seeing at present, and endurable limits may be even less than that.

We need to do everything we can to reduce C02 to 350 parts per million. Burning fossil fuels in any form, especially dirty bitumen from the tar sands is running a risk we cannot afford. Congress must pass a fee on carbon with a dividend to the American people that would show the real cost of burning fossil fuels and give renewable energy an opportunity to thrive.

Congressmen Dave Loebsack and Bruce Braley, Senators Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley, please step up to our nation's greatest challenge.

Barbara Schlachter

Iowa City