Environment & Energy

People really need to read and understand your excellent synopsis of our current situation.

In the days of my misbegotten youth I was strongly against nuclear power. But then I began to see vast swaths of dying trees up in Colorado's San Juan Mountains - ponderosa and pinon pines that I once thought could survive almost anything were and being felled by the ongoing mega drought and the pine beetles which flourish as the temperatures rise. I began searching the Internet trying to understand and I came across the work of climate scientist James Hansen who had tried to warn Congress of our plight back in the late 80's. It would have been relatively easy to make the required changes in our energy production back then but as always Congress members went with the easy money and sent science back to the dark ages.

The more I read of the work of Hansen and other climate scientists, the more I came to understand how truly dire our situation is. The laws of thermodynamics are implacable. Donald Trump and his wilfully ignorant cult can call climate change a hoax but you can't change physics by calling it names.

I cry when I go up to the Colorado mountains these days. I chose nuclear power over extinction every single time.