We need to take climate change seriously

The snowfalls that buried our East Coast cities have provided fodder for jokes for climate change deniers. They ridicule the theory of global warming as they shovel evidence of its strength.

The simple fact is that warmer air holds more moisture. When temperatures cool, the moisture falls from the sky as snow. More warmth, more snow.

Many people don't understand how climate change can create both droughts and floods, simultaneously. Hotter air evaporates more moisture than normal in some areas, creating drought, then it gets dumped as rain many miles away, causing flooding. That's no joke.

Even if you don't care about drowning polar bears, stronger hurricanes, sea-level rise and drought that threatens to destabilize governments and create refugees, maybe you care about jobs and our economy. By ignoring science, we give other countries the economic advantage in the clean-energy race.

There is no downside to adopting green technologies. If climate change is not real, then all we've done is given our kids a cleaner world.

But suppose climate change is real and we've done nothing? What kind of a planet are we going to pass on to the next generation?”

Evan Hewer

Cedar Rapids