Diana Doll: You can’t negotiate away catastrophic impacts of climate change

Re “A Taxonomy of Trump Tweets” (Page 1B, Jan. 7) contains important warnings. Ritually focusing on a president’s emotional contrivances means paying less attention to matters of substance in government. (One example is Republicans quietly hamstringing the Affordable Care Act through tax reform.) The large number of destructive policies and proposals is frustrating and dispiriting. Electing better people to Congress this year will raise hopes for better governance.

But one problem isn’t waiting around. Al Gore, who wrote the stellar “Earth in the Balance” in 1992, had been exploring humans’ effect on the environment since the 1960s. As evidence from across the planet got stronger, Gore shared what he knew. Exxon’s scientists had also learned that the continued burning of fossil fuels would irrevocably harm us, but the oil companies, with electric utilities and polluting industries, did not share. They liked the lucrative status quo.

To better understand this history and the critical need for clean energy, I recommend Bill McKibben’s succinct essay “Winning Slowly Is the Same as Losing” in December’s Rolling Stone. Denial and procrastination have brought our planet to a dangerous crossroad. Change is hard but we must do it quickly. To paraphrase McKibben: physics doesn’t negotiate.

This story was originally published January 10, 2018 at 11:46 AM with the headline "Diana Doll: You can’t negotiate away catastrophic impacts of climate change."