Understand issue before reacting

To the editor:

Marian Arens 'hopes” that the several measures she mentioned will help prevent 'climate change” from being so severe ('We cannot ignore climate change,” Aug. 1). However, she won't support pipelines to move the oil and gas her car and her home require, but she has no problem with forcing citizens to allow electrical lines to carry the electricity from wind turbines over their private property. The amounts of 'fumes” (I think she means carbon) that go into the atmosphere are down from the past and they are continuing to decline. We have reduced our emissions significantly and are continuing to do so.

All this is missing the point though. Climate change is real and eternal as long as there is a planet. It's happened millions of years before there were humans on the scene. Carbon dioxide is expelled whenever she breathes out. What are the options for reducing that? Plants require carbon dioxide to live. More to the point of cause, the sun's solar activity is at a minimum and going below previous observations. The amount of sunlight reaching the earth is the biggest single factor affecting climate change and is beyond our control.

Perhaps she should do some research and discover what the byproducts of oil and coal provide in our daily lives: aviation and auto fuel, lubrication for moving parts in her car, the gearbox in wind turbines, electrical wire insulation, tires, brakes, clothing among millions of other things.

Reacting without understanding can cause far worse problems.

Stan Thornberry

Cedar Rapids