Why is our country denying or ignoring the warming weather? More people, animals and plants are dying from heat every year.

This past March, there were hotter temperatures in our West than ever before, while Hawaii was hit by huge rain storms for two weeks, causing devastating floods. I was in Hawaii recently and the lovely guide kept saying it was a “once-in-a-century storm.” He was upset or I would have said these aberrant weather events will be happening frequently. Zooming with a friend in Arizona recently, she reported it is like they have already had their very hot summer and people there fear what is next. 

When will Americans look around and awaken? We continue to put increasing amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, causing the blanket of material around the Earth to thicken and thus increasing its temperature.

This does not have to happen. We have the technology to move quickly to renewable energy, which will be cheaper, especially since oil is now about $100 a barrel. What holds us back are politicians who do not face the problem and many of whom are funded by the fossil fuel industry; that and our outdated electrical grid. If we demand that our legislators support permitting reform for the grid ,this will allow thousands of renewable projects to come online and the situation will start to improve.

Nancy Hasenfus
Brunswick