Ted Vansant (10-19-20) 476 -

I vote for Science

I believe in science and that climate change needs immediate action and is the greatest challenge of our time. We can stop the carbon emissions and stop the warming but we cannot go back and cool the planet. The changes required to slow/stop the warming will take MANY years to plan and implement and most scientists believe that we only have 10 years before we hit the tipping point where it will be hard or impossible to even slow the warming.

It is time to act. We are already seeing unprecedented extreme heat, drought, record wildfires, water scarcity and food shortages around the globe. We can’t wait another 4 years to start working on this so I ask you to consider the importance of your vote in less than 5 weeks.

You trust science for your health care, and to get us out of the Covid crisis and to make your food safe and to make your car run and your computer work and pretty much everything in your life. So why distrust science for this one issue? The sad part is that this has become a partisan issue, which makes no sense. Will Republicans be less harmed than democrats by increased tornadoes, floods, drought, crop failures, air pollution and other human health impacts?

We can solve this problem if we go after it like we are going after a vaccine for Covid. We have the clean energy technology that will provide good paying jobs and unleash American ingenuity.

But what can you do? Dont vote for a President, or governor or any politician who is a science denier. Our President does not believe in climate change and is doing everything in his power to reverse progress we have made on fighting climate change including;

- pulling out of the Climate Paris Agreement

- killing the clean power plan

- opening up Arctic wildlife refuge for oil drilling,

- reducing progress on fuel economy standards on vehicles,

- not allowing governmental employees to even use the words “climate change”

These may help big business in the short term but they don’t help you and I. Are gas prices so high that you need the price to drop another 2 pennies? The US has a glut of oil and natural gas and we are frantically trying to export it to other countries.

Unfortunately, there will be no vaccine in six months or a year for the climate crisis. The only treatment is collective climate action in the present.

So, first thing to do is don’t vote for climate deniers. Second thing is to not shy away from talking about climate change with other people. If we all ignore it and don’t talk about it, our political, business and clergy leaders will not to act on it. And finally if you want to be proactive you can write letters to your editor about the need to act.

Ted Vansant 

Holderness