Letters to the Editor: Don’t let climate change take California’s irreplaceable redwoods

To the editor: Homeowners buy insurance to allow them to rebuild if a fire or an earthquake destroys their home. But, when the evacuation order comes, they grab photographs and keepsakes — the things with meaning that connect them to the life they’ve had. This is what’s irreplaceable. (“Scarred by fire, California’s first state park remains closed. Can Big Basin recover?” Nov. 11)

Thousands of years of a stable climate have allowed human civilization to flourish. We have an abundance of many forms of life, including the redwoods, the sequoia and the bristlecone pine trees of California, which are irreplaceable. You can’t grab these and run.

Perhaps the threat of losing these wondrous life forms will reach the people reading this letter and create more climate activists demanding emissions reductions. A species like the coastal redwood that depends on fog for survival is very fragile. The form of life we call civilization is no more immune to climate change than that.

What form of life do you consider irreplaceable? Grab it and protect it now. The fire is coming.

Gary Stewart, Laguna Beach

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To the editor: Using prisoners to fight forest fires has been very important and successful. Why can’t the state of California use the same resources in reforesting the vast burned-out areas of state-owned forests?

Temporary facilities in burned-out areas could be established. Also, I imagine the prisoners who work on fire crews would rather participate in planting trees than fighting fires.

California has often been the leader in environmental matters. Maybe Kamala Harris, the newly elected vice president who hails from California, might consider leading a national initiative on forests.

Jack Norris, Santa Monica