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Letter to the editor: Climate deniers cannot ignore extreme weather events

Rabbi Joel R. Schwartzman
Dillon

I have a brother-in-law who challenges the theories surrounding climate change. I find it senseless to discuss the issue with him because I cannot prove that what is happening to our planet is necessarily caused by human beings.

What I can do is repeat listing those things which have manifested themselves within the past decade that are so obvious that they simply cannot be ignored. At present, there are raging wildfires throughout the western U.S. and Canada. Some of these conflagrations have become fire storms. These are unlike the forest fires of the past in that they literally blow up. Anyone here in Summit County who hasn’t experienced the pine smell, irritation to eyes and throat, and added difficulty when exercising probably hasn’t stepped outside in awhile.

Rising seas, melting icecaps, vanishing species, changes in climate patterns and warmer temperatures throughout the world all indicate that something is changing. Doubters maintain that climate change isn’t calculated in any one year or even a decade, yet our seasons are getting hotter. When did we last experience a winter week of minus 20 degrees here in Colorado? Are our ski seasons not growing shorter with our annual snow melt coming on faster?



So far this summer, it seems we are having more and more 80-degree days here in the mountains. Between the haze, smoke and heat, it’s become a bit less comfortable and a bit more challenging not only for us humans but also for the trout which are dying in our rivers and the critters that can’t climb much higher to find suitable habitats.

All this may not be provable climate change, but it sure isn’t what has been. Are we not better off if we do something about it?




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