Opinion: ‘The artificial-intelligence apocalypse might be the planet’s best hope’

To the editor: News about the environment has been so sad lately. On the front page of Friday’s Los Angeles Times, you had a story about park rangers being killed by elephant poachers in Congo, and on the Opinion page you had an article about Congress opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling.

We have already lost a large portion of our natural resources, but it seems that humans will not be satisfied until all of them are gone. This is not just an American problem, it is a worldwide problem. Only a small percentage of the global population is working on conservation, and we are losing.

I hate to say it, but the artifical-intelligence apocalypse might be the planet’s best hope.

Brent Trafton, Long Beach

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To the editor: Yes, we should be outraged. But we continue to enjoy cheap cars and cheap gas, so we are placated for now. We should be able to vest our outrage in consumer choice, like we do with organic food.

The American mantra of capital markets would have you exercise your buying power. But you can’t buy what hasn’t been priced. The cost of burning fossil fuels for energy isn’t priced into anything we buy. We pay for it on the back end, in the form of climate disasters, oil spills, health crises from chemically tainted water, insurance premiums and more.

Advocacy for carbon pricing is the only way for consumers to make a fair choice for renewables. You should be able to see the cost of carbon like a label on your food. Without it, outrage over environmental wrongs is wasted.

Pam Brennan, Newport Beach

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To the editor: Brad Meiklejohn is extremely upset, as are millions of Americans, by the Republicans’ obsession with oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

This is shortsighted greed by the Republicans, it’s always been one of their goals, and it’s a despicable act against America.

Elections definitely have consequences.

Mindy Taylor-Ross, Venice

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