Nancy Corson Carter: Do-nothing denials

Regarding the Dec. 29 letter “Reject climate alarmists”: The very persons and groups castigated as “climate alarmists” may help save us, but only if we stop wasting our intelligence on do-nothing denials. It’s true that Earth has natural climate cycles, but what is happening now is not “natural” in any conventional sense.

The overwhelming majority of worldwide climate scientists (over 97 percent) agree and can demonstrate that global warming is happening, with human activity as the primary cause. Fossil fuels, central to this activity, can be replaced by renewables, and forward-thinking companies and nations are already proving their marketability. Governments should shift subsidies to renewables.

Paris climate agreement participants give hope by establishing international networks to combat consequences of heat-trapping gases already locked into the atmosphere and to develop more resilient cities and communities. We already have human climate change refugees. I’ve met some from coastal Alaska. Nonhuman refugees already range from birds to mosquitoes to cold-water fish. Some, like polar bears and high-altitude mammals, have nowhere else to go.

We don’t have time for so-called “sound arguments” that simply bolster the calamity-bound status quo. There are choices we need to make quickly – that’s now – to ensure a healthy planet for future generations.

This story was originally published December 29, 2015 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Nancy Corson Carter: Do-nothing denials."