There remains some controversy as to whether the mass deaths of lemmings, the little northern rodents, should be termed “suicide” or rather the result of frantic crowding and accidents during migration. However, there is no controversy, except for false claims from the extreme right, regarding climate change. The scientific calculations, from scientists around the planet — our one and only planet — have been, if anything, too conservative. It is even worse than heretofore believed, and we may have little over a decade left to mitigate an otherwise irreversable and suicidal catastrophy.

Read Elizabeth Kolbert, Bill McKibben, and other highly respected journalists who interpret the massive scientific evidence for us. There will be a gathering panic as the truth is irrefutably revealed, with plenty of frantic crowding and accidents, along with flooding of coastal land worldwide and mass migrations that will make our current issues look like a walk in the park. Climate change is the one issue that soon will make all other issues seem insignificant.

I’ll say no more except to mention that at age 83 I’ll be gone when it really hits the fan. I’m speaking out because I care about my kids and grandchildren, and I wonder daily how the fossil fuel big shots feel about their own, because they are blatant liars who know full well what’s going on. So if you have not informed yourself already by reading legitimate sources — scientific sources — please do it now.

Abbott Meader

Oakland