Letter: We can't solve global warming if we don't acknowledge it

By: Letters to the editor | Opelika Auburn News
Published: November 08, 2009

We can’t solve global warming if we don’t acknowledge it

In her Tuesday column, Floy Lilley proposes that instead of global warming, there is now a cooling trend. On the same day, the American Scientist E-News directed attention to an independent study by the Associated Press wherein four independent statisticians analyzed recent climate data and found that, small fluctuations notwithstanding, the global temperature trend is still upward.

It is in the interests of industries that produce large amounts of greenhouse gases, including petroleum powered transportation, to promote any study, however spurious, that suggests that human activity has no effect on climate, in the face of overwhelming evidence that it is at least a factor, the only one over which we have some control.

As I wrote recently in the Birmingham News, 50 years ago someone suggested humans could just settle on another planet.

Now we have seen the moon and planets up close. It is clear we have nowhere else to go for the foreseeable future. We had better take care of what we have.

There are jobs to be created and the technological advances to be made if we direct our efforts to replacing fossil fuels with renewable clean energy sources and producing more energy efficient cars, houses and industries. A time of crisis such as today is also a time of opportunity, but we have to acknowledge the problems before we can solve them.

Charlotte Ward
Auburn

Ethnic background has too much to do with health coverage

Too many Americans are straining under the burden of shrinking health care coverage and rising health care costs.

Over the last decade, millions of Americans have found themselves uninsured. And today, someone loses their health insurance every 12 minutes.

At the same time, health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs have risen steadily, and more and more families are facing unmanageably high health care costs.

Your ethnic background and where you live have a major impact on your health care access and quality.

Congress must pass real health care reform, including a public option, now.

Eric Cannon
Opelika