Unfettered Letters

The high cost of climate change

The news has been dominated by the financial crisis, but it’s the climate crisis that may have a greater impact on the economics, health, environment and livelihoods of Kansas City residents, as well as billions of people around the world for decades to come.

What would be the cost of not dealing with climate change? Consider what flooding on the Missouri and Red rivers has cost individuals, cities and taxpayers in the last few years. Now multiply it by millions, because that’s what is in store as floods, droughts and violent storms all increase as a result of climate change. And the poor, the disadvantaged and women will be hurt first and worst.

Last week, Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey introduced new legislation that seeks to lower emissions, create a market-based approach for developing jobs in renewable energy and building community resiliency (4/1, A-5). With this legislation, Congress can address both climate change and economic stagnation.

We should all encourage our Missouri and Kansas representatives — Emanuel Cleaver and Dennis Moore — to support this emerging legislation. Their leadership can help spur the use of renewable energy, create new clean jobs here at home and cut our dependence on foreign oil.

Peg Prendergast
President, League of Women Voters — Jackson, Clay and Platte counties
Kansas City

Going ‘green’ leads to lean times

The front-page article “EPA ready to control greenhouse emissions; Proposed finding could widen regulatory agency’s reach, a move opposed by industry” (3/24, A-1) is alarming, to say the least. President Obama’s EPA is ready to say that carbon dioxide is basically poisonous, and all “greenhouse gas” emissions should be and will be regulated. Congress will also get involved with actual legislation. This is all in response to the Bush administration, which “sidestepped” the issue.

The problem is, it’s all a hoax. Carbon dioxide is a fraction of a fraction of all the elements in the atmosphere. Our activities on Earth cannot, and have not, affected its temperature. We all breathe in, and when we breathe out, it’s carbon dioxide. So our government is basically saying that humans poison the Earth by existence.

Make no mistake about the purpose of these rulings however. It’s about forcing “green” energy. But when the marketplace has no say in energy use, going “green” will only lead to lean times.

Dyrk Dugan
Overland Park

Green tip

One word that would help cut pollution and save energy: clothesline.

Gordon Trouth
Emma, Mo.

Kansas coal plant

I have news for the state legislators wanting to strip our state secretary of health of his authority to regulate power plant emissions (2/5, Local, “Push is on to revive coal plant projects”): The era of science-denial is over.

That permit rejection was based on reality, not “on a whim,” as Sunflower Electric says. Once the Environmental Protection Agency is revived, it will resume its obligation to regulate CO2, as the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it should.

In the meantime, it is irresponsible to override valid objections to an expensive and unnecessary monster of a coal-fired power plant for the financial gains of a few and to the detriment of all. It’s been shown that developing the state’s wind power resources would provide larger and more widely-distributed economic benefits for far more people.

I’m not a paleontologist, but it appears to me that many of our legislators are closely related to the dinosaurs in the coal industry.

Richard Voss
Overland Park

Green idea for stimulus

I have a suggestion for the use of some of Kansas’ and Missouri’s share of the federal stimulus dollars. This proposal would help low- and moderate-income people get to jobs, doctors and stores in our spread prairie city. At the same time, I believe that this project would reduce carbon emissions and the particulates that aggravate asthma for many inner-city children and adults, thus improving health.

The Star reported that the ATA may cut bus service (1/22, Local). Instead of cutting service, I suggest that Kansas and Missouri allot stimulus dollars to convert the public transit fleet into small buses, which would run more frequently on more routes and be fueled on natural gas. Natural gas, which is plentiful in our country, is cheaper and less polluting than diesel and gasoline.

Jean M. Green
Kansas City

Simple ways to breathe easier

The article “Cleaner air worth five more months” (A-1, 1/22) revealing the correlation between cleaner air and increased life expectancy makes an important connection between our actions and our quality of life.

Although air quality regulations are an important piece of reducing air pollution, individuals can take simple, everyday steps to make our air cleaner. Habits that are seemingly small — stopping at the click when refueling, carpooling, refueling in the evening and not idling — can cumulatively have a positive impact on our region’s air. You can find more tips that help make our air cleaner at www.marc.org/airQ

Amanda Graor
Senior Air Quality Planner, Mid-America Regional Council
Kansas City

A national sprinkler system?

Each year the government spends billions on saving lives and property damage due to the spring thaw, which causes floods along the banks of our major rivers and tributaries. This grief, expense and loss of life could be abated if we put the Army Corp of Engineers to work designing and constructing holding ponds, aquifers and a pipe line system that could transport excess water to areas of the U.S. that need it.

Imagine a sprinkler system, much like the ones we have in our yards, only on a national scale. Water to wet areas of the country could be controlled, and dry areas supplemented. Droughts and floods could become a thing of the past.

The benefits of such a program would be enormous in terms of stimulating the economy, saving FEMA billions annually, putting people to work and enhancing our infrastructure long term.

Think about it. A national sprinkler system for the U.S. makes sense. Talk about going “green.” The whole country would look like a garden.

If we can pump oil and natural gas to every corner of our country, a national sprinkler system that puts water where we need it shouldn’t be that difficult.

Paul Styers
Leawood

Thrift stores save money, landfill space

The Star’s article “Green execs sprout up,” (12/23, Business) did a great job reporting on organizations increasingly realizing the importance of “going green.” Chief sustainability officers will continue to play a vital role not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it can be profitable as well.

One vital avenue that was not mentioned, however, was the ultimate green opportunity to donate usable items to organizations that operate thrift stores. For instance, Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas TurnStyles thrift store receives more than 12,000 loads a year of unwanted but usable, good-quality items, while serving more than 3,000 customers per week.

Organizations, including UPS, Sprint, Embarq, Marriott Downtown, Costco, Wal-Mart, Target and LabOne, regularly provide good-quality items that are resold or given to clients in need, saving consumers millions of dollars and providing much-needed revenue to help financially support numerous charitable programs in our community.

Companies are able to reduce landfill expenses, save people money and receive recognition in the marketplace. In this tough economic period, that just makes perfect sense.

Doug Clopton
Director of in-kind donations, Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas
Overland Park

For Democrats, it’s not so easy being green

When Democrats were out of power, expedience demanded that they concentrate on issues they agreed on and work together to win the next election. Being in power, however, is already a different story.

Take the radical environmentalists, for example. They assumed, with their candidate in office, that the Democrats would continue to be the “clean, green party.” But they underestimated the economic crisis facing the new president-elect. With the massive stimulus plan and the $1 trillion infrastructure program, the Green lobby is beginning to fuss.

Colin Peppard of Friends of the Earth said, “More roads mean more pollution and more dependence on oil, hurting our economy, security and climate.”

Democratic discord certainly makes the news worth watching again.

Susan Phillips
Kansas City

To rake or not to rake?

Jennie Sindak (12/19, Letters) wrote of her frustration with neighbors who did not rake their leaves. She raked. They didn’t. Their leaves are now her leaves all over again.

I agree with her. There is a shared price for shade if you live under the big trees. Be a good neighbor.

But be a good citizen, too. Jennie said she accumulated 34 bags of leaves. Thirty-four bags times all of the homes with leaves — that’s too much for the landfill.

Cities need to start educating everyone to mow. You mow all summer. Mow a little bit more in the fall. The cut-up leaves don’t blow away. Snow comes. They work into the lawn. Nitrogen forms. Spring comes. Grass grows again.

I live under big trees. I haven’t placed a single leaf bag at my curb in five years. I am free of that back-bending chore. You can be, too.

Please, no “mow” bags of leaves. Pun intended.

Jerry McDonald
Overland Park

Jennie Sindak complains about people not raking leaves. Guess what? I am one of them. I work 10 hours a day, and the last thing I feel like dong is going out in the cold and raking leaves.

If you want to rake your leaves, fine, rake away. But to look down on all those who don’t do so is just shallow.

Keep your nose on your side of the fence, and I will do the same.

Joe Virgo
Kansas City