Letters to the Editor: We can’t let ‘anti-science’ push back our efforts to rein in climate change

To the editor: As this article explains, “the basic science of the Earth’s climate has been well established through decades of research” (“‘Not scientifically credible’: Scientists repudiate Trump administration climate report,” Sept. 3).

Sadly, science is now taking a back seat to the wishful thinking of the Trump administration, and this federal report, ignoring much of the science, is being used to stop us from moving forward to rein in climate change, which has already cost us billions in weather-related disasters.

Increasing fossil fuel use and slowing the transition to clean energy are just going to make us sicker with pollution and make our environment “sicker” with floods, storms, heat waves, rising sea levels and more extreme fires, which we’ve seen here in California this year.

We should all be peppering our representatives to fight against this anti-science that’s going to harm us and encouraging them to convince their Republican colleagues to listen to the scientists.

Maggie Wineburgh-Freed, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I have been surfing for 70 years. When I started, I also played with the sand crabs, and I remember two species. I chased the shore birds — at least five species. I got tangled in the seaweed. My friends would paddle beyond the surf line and fish for dinner. That was El Porto then. El Porto’s shores are now barren of sea life.

I earned an advanced degree, which landed me a job at Boeing designing flight control systems for 747s. When I watched Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” and saw the graph of the Earth’s temperatures fluctuating higher, I became very, very concerned. This graph, to me, looked like a 747 gone out of control; a death spiral, except it was our planet’s health that was plummeting.

Today, I can see the color of the ocean changing, an indicator that the water is getting warmer.

Tell me, who am I to believe: scientists hired by an administration led by a man who said “find 11,780 votes” or my own eyes?

Gregg Ferry, Carlsbad

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To the editor: This report is just one more example that the Trump administration lives by the maxim in George Orwell’s “1984”: “Ignorance is strength.”

John Beckman, Chino Hills

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To the editor: Regarding our climate, we are playing Russian roulette with our policy and the gun is aimed at the heads of our children and grandchildren.

This (not peer-reviewed) Department of Energy report, by five climate-science outliers, continues this administration’s propensity for just making stuff up. Yes, there is uncertainty, but there’s also plenty of evidence that climate scientists are better at predicting temperatures than economists are at predicting price trends.

Oil and gas pollution (not counting any climate-related expenses) is responsible for over 91,000 annual premature deaths in the U.S., according to a recent study, and renewables are now our cheapest and healthiest energy source. For our health and economy, we should stop subsidizing fossil fuels with our lives and dollars.

Tom Hazelleaf, Seal Beach