Letters to the editor

Uncertainties of global warming

Re "Climate change: Just deal with it?" March 26

The Times misses much of the point. Yes, humans can take some steps to mitigate the effects of climate change on our own species, but we can do little to help other species and their habitats adapt. To an increasing degree, invasive species will take root, fires will burn, subtle changes will overtake environments across the globe, and all manner of species will be pushed out of their native habitats -- often with nowhere else to go. If we give up on the fight against climate change, we abdicate our ethical responsibility to species other than our own.

Ginette Chapman

Oakland



The total conceit of the global warming hysterics is evidenced by their rejection of an "adaptation" solution because the effects of global warming may be "unpredictable." How utterly disingenuous. The entire climate environment has been "unpredictable" for countless millions of years. The collapse of an ice shelf that's been there for -- gosh -- all of 1,500 whole years? What is that, one ten-millionth of this planet's history?

Kip Dellinger

West Los Angeles





I am dismayed by how often newspaper articles about the potential effects of greenhouse gas emissions focus only on the effects of rising temperatures. There is growing consensus within the scientific community that increasing carbon dioxide levels will lead to acidification in the ocean, inhibiting the ability of small animals such as coral, mollusks and some forms of plankton to form their shells. These creatures are at the bottom of the oceanic food chain. If they disappear, the oceanic food chain collapses.

How will we deal with that?

James Friedson

Altadena



Roger Pielke Jr. and the so-called climate realists think we can adapt to human-driven climate change. They say that it is too expensive to make the necessary changes and that we do not have the global political will to act.

This is not a real option because climate change will continue to get worse if we do not act. Although the exact consequences of global warming beyond three degrees are uncertain, it is clear that the level of climate instability will be way beyond what we can adapt to. Short term, we can adapt; long term, we must change or join the dinosaurs in extinction.

John D. Kelley

Santa Barbara

Conversation is just beginning

Re "When haven't we talked about race?" Opinion, March 25

Jonah Goldberg flippantly dismisses Sen. Barack Obama's call for a national dialogue about race. As a white criminal defense attorney, I am frequently reminded of the latent anger in the African American community caused by ongoing racial discrimination.

That discrimination is evidenced by disproportionate unemployment, school funding and incarceration rates. The magnitude of racial tension in the African American community was demonstrated by the riots that occurred after Los Angeles police beat Rodney King. Now that Obama has a serious chance of reaching the White House, a new discussion of race will commence whether Goldberg wants it or not.

Jerry Wallingford

San Diego



Goldberg misses the point completely. This may not be the first time race has been the subject of conversation in America; however, it is the first time a candidate for president -- one who stands with one foot in black and one in white -- has spoken so clearly about the subject. I am 63 years old, and this is the first time I have heard the "white" side of the issue. The anger at affirmative action that Obama expressed is exactly what I heard my white companions express whenever we discussed race.

Phil Boiarski

Columbus, Ohio

Goldberg is spot on. I find that a majority of those who complain about racism tend to defend their views with racist commentary. I've often been told by nonwhites what I think about people of other races. A majority of the time, they are not only way off base but also condescending and insulting. It seems that if you complain about racism, it's OK to be condescending and insulting toward those you would accuse of being racist.

Racism deserves inclusion in scholastic studies at all grade levels. Personally, I think this supposed new revelation of the importance of a dialogue on race is mostly inspired by the "high" that people are feeling about Obama. It's nice that more people are engaged in this election campaign, but we should keep a realistic perspective.

Todd Groves

Santa Monica



There has been a lot of talk about race in this country, and there needs to be a lot more. Where are we? At a point, perhaps, where we can bear each other's feelings instead of raging about our own individual experience of injustice on our own separate sides of the fence. Inequality takes a long time to talk about, to root out and to heal from. I know because 30 years ago, I was held at knifepoint and driven around in a car by two angry white men because I was white and my boyfriend was black. I thought we would die that night. I only rode in that car one time, but it changed me forever.

I have never wondered for one moment why black Americans might be angry. I still am. Take a ride in someone else's car sometime, Mr. Goldberg.

Marie Keller

Pacific Palisades

Neediest people get turned away

Re "Further fee cuts force a Medi-Cal exodus," March 24

I am appalled by the attitude of physician Ted Mazer and his colleagues. Medi-Cal is meant to help the weakest people in California. How can these doctors live with themselves when they deny these needy patients access to treatment? There are fewer sites where these Medi-Cal dependents can go, placing an even bigger burden on those doctors compassionate enough to care for these people.

The article says some doctors have treated Medi-Cal patients "out of a sense of professional responsibility." Where is that professional responsibility now?

With the well-reported history of Medicaid fraud in mind, and now this article, I wonder if doctors really put patients first and their own gain last.

Emily Jackson

Valencia



Los Angeles will have the most to lose if proposed Medi-Cal cuts are implemented. More than 2 million L.A. County residents depend on Medi-Cal. With Medi-Cal provider rates already ranking among the lowest in the nation, the last thing the state should do is slash them further.

Inevitably, Medi-Cal patients who can't find a doctor will be forced to seek costly care in our overburdened emergency rooms -- a situation we can ill afford as 10 local ERs have closed in just the last three years. In the end, the "savings" that the state hopes to realize will just appear somewhere else on the health system's balance sheet.

Piling on a health system already on the verge of collapse just doesn't add up.

Yolanda Vera

Director, LA Health Action

Los Angeles



What is the message about the health of the American social compact as told by two March 24 front-page Times stories? There they are, side by side: summer rentals in Malibu going for $150,000 a month next to a report about continued reductions in Medi-Cal fees to doctors ($168 for a tonsillectomy?) causing a widespread exodus of physicians from the program.

Where is the leadership toward a fairer system?

Patty Ecker

Camarillo

Committed to green rail yard

Re "Railroad's 'green' claim is way off track," Opinion, March 10

Angelo Logan misleads readers about BNSF Railway's commitment to cleaning up its yards throughout California. BNSF entered into historic agreements in 1998 and 2005 with the California Air Resources Board, whose authority includes the South Coast Air Basin. As a result, BNSF will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions 65% by 2010 via retrofitting locomotives with emission reduction kits, purchasing cleaner locomotives and yard equipment, and evaluating new technologies such as liquefied natural gas and multi-engine switch locomotives.

Moreover, the health risk assessment to which Logan referred, to which the railway agreed under the Air Resources Board agreement, found that a majority of the effects of air quality around the Commerce rail yards are from other sources, including nearby highways.

BNSF's proposed Southern California International Gateway facility would be the greenest intermodal rail yard in the United States and provide much-needed jobs. The facility would also provide flexibility to consider further improvements at Hobart.

Growth requires the goods movement industry to set the standard for environmental stewardship, and BNSF is committed to doing so.

Mark Stehly

Fort Worth, Texas

The writer is the assistant vice president for environment and research development at BNSF Railway.