Letter to Editor: Climate Change Strike
By Canton CitizenDear Editor:
I am writing to urge all Canton residents to participate in a peaceful demonstration in support of the world-wide Climate Change Strike. The demonstration, sponsored by the Charles River Green Coalition, will take place in neighboring Westwood tomorrow, September 20.
As Greta Thunberg and youth in the Sunrise Movement have warned us, climate change is an existential crisis for our children and grandchildren; its consequences threaten to extinguish life on earth. As rising levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, in particular) are emitted into our atmosphere, they keep the naturally occurring excess heat of the sun from escaping into space. Over 90 percent of this excess heat goes into the oceans, and the rest heats the land. As a result, ice — at the poles and in glaciers everywhere — is melting, oceans are warming and rising, storms are becoming more intense, and droughts and wildfires afflict vast portions of the world. The recent hurricanes in Texas and Puerto Rico and the wildfire in California that wiped out the town of Paradise are only a few examples of what we are already experiencing.
Since the 19th century, physicists have warned that these effects would be inevitable if people continued to act in such a way — for example, by burning fossil fuels — as to raise greenhouse gas concentrations. We have largely ignored their conclusions, with the predicted result that irreversible climate change has already occurred. And yet, what we are seeing now pales in comparison to what the future holds if we do not end our dependence on fossil fuels. Scientists estimate that if we do not reduce our carbon footprint to zero very soon, the effects of global warming may overwhelm us. Crops will flood and fail, and food will be scarce, even for us; diseases will proliferate, and the entire world economy could collapse, rendering governance impossible. Greta Thunberg has posed the question any of our school-aged children might ask: “Why should I be studying for a future that soon may be no more … ?”
We know of many things that can be done. We need to implement international, national, municipal and local solutions to avert the greatest crisis mankind has ever faced. So how should we begin?
On September 20, three days before an emergency climate summit in New York, people from all over the world will participate in a climate strike, demanding that we end the fossil fuel age. To support the climate strike, members of the Charles River Green Coalition, a group of citizens from Westwood, Dover, Sherborn, Dedham, Norwood, Canton, Sharon, Walpole and Medfield, will hold a peaceful demonstration. That demonstration will take place tomorrow from 7-9 a.m. at the intersection of Route 109 and Gay Street in Westwood. (Rain date is September 23.) Our purpose is to raise awareness among residents; we hope that you will join us. Feel free to bring your own signs or use ours.
Sincerely,
Leslie Greffenius
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=60421
Posted by Canton Citizen
on Sep 20 2019. Filed under Featured Content, From One Citizen to Another, Opinion.
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