When I read that four out of five penguin colonies were lost in 2022 (“Record ice melt dooms penguin chicks,” The Columbian, Aug. 29) and that Republican debate candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says, “The climate change agenda is a hoax” and “we need to abandon the cult of climate change” and “Yet China, by far the world’s biggest carbon emitter, last year approved the construction of 168 new power plants fired by coal,” I am heartbroken, sad and frustrated.
What will it take? How many Maui fires with 338 unaccounted for? How many hurricanes on the Atlantic and recently Hilary on the Pacific coast? How many canaries in the coal mine (i.e. an early indicator of potential danger or failure) are needed before we all decide to do whatever is humanly possible to stop and reverse climate change?
