Letters to the Editor: If you eat meat, you’re not serious about fighting climate change

To the editor: I commiserate with 22-year-old Nikayla Jefferson’s horrific experience in the Thomas Fire even though she did leave a carbon footprint by driving her car out of Santa Barbara. I lost my home in the Woolsey Fire.

Marching at the Climate Strike will have little effect until we understand the importance of not eating meat. A United Nations report released last month warns that “the impacts of global warming will fall significantly short without drastic changes in global land use, agriculture and human diets.”

Don’t brag about what a do-gooder you are until you walk the walk by becoming a vegan or vegetarian and giving up meat for life.

Susan M. Tellem, Malibu

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To the editor: Jefferson spoke truth in her piece describing how fleeing the Thomas Fire in 2017 made the hell of climate change a frightening reality for her. I will be 79 next month, and on Friday I joined her and other young people at the Climate Strike.

There must be a solution to the climate crisis; we must save the planet for our children and grandchildren. We are running out of time.

Susan Cornner, Northridge

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To the editor: Several in my family headed to Laguna Beach Friday to support the youth-driven Climate Strike. One woman with her 9-year-old twin daughters told me she had started an environmental club at their school in Irvine.

Another father from Aliso Viejo , his young son in tow, told of his transformation and awakening to both the crisis of climate change and the hope from our shared activism.

Of course the youth were there in numbers, exuberant and holding signs while cheering climate slogans. The mood and the tone were deliberate, focused and hopeful. There was resolve in the air.

As the old proverb says, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second-best time is now.

Wayne Bass, Mission Viejo

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To the editor: Too bad Jefferson is only 22. There’s a job opening next year for which she may be eminently more qualified than the current employee.

Oh, well. Perhaps it’ll be Jefferson in 2032 or 2036. I only hope we can survive that long.

Jonathan Simons, Woodland Hills