Readers React: Fossil-fuel addiction is changing the climate

As a spiritual leader, I often counsel people regarding personal problems such as addiction. (“Climate change is already affecting all of U.S., report says,” May 6)

I have been preaching about global climate change for years. In the Jewish tradition, there is a teaching that it took Noah 120 years to build the ark so people would ask him what he was doing and hopefully heed his warning.

We are getting closer to our “120 years,” as scientists and others have been sounding the alarm for years. How much longer will we think that money trumps doing the responsible and moral thing regarding fossil fuels?

Having the know-how to change, having the knowledge that we need to change, and seeing destructive forces at work but refusing to change: these are tell-tale signs of addiction and suffering that I counsel in my career.

Our addiction to the ways of the past are destroying us. For humanity, intervention is needed.

Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater

Pasadena

This year’s National Climate Assessment will do little to sway those in Congress who are in denial about the contribution of human pollution to the changes seen around the globe. Even those who admit that our emissions into the air might add to the problem say that our efforts would be insignificant, so why go to the expense and trouble.

We should ask them, “Even if human-caused pollution has no effect on climate, why would we want to continue to pump such massive amounts of poison into the air?”

Richard Green

San Clemente