On Feb. 12, I wrote a letter to the editor discussing climate change. In the March 4 edition of the Navigator, there was a letter to the editor that took exception to what I wrote. For those of you who know me personally, you know that I love a good debate. I did take issue with some of the author's assumptions that supposedly came from my letter. Well, here goes! I do believe that it is important to be good stewards of our earth. On March 4, he refers to me as a person who does not care because what we do will not have any impact on God's creation. That is not exactly what I said! To believe that you can keep the planet's climate from changing is right up there with stopping the tides by halting the moon's orbit so that we do not erode the beaches. The climate has changed since the beginning of the earth and will continue to change forever.

The author also threw in his view about pollution. In my previous letter I only discussed climate change. Carbon dioxide by definition is not a pollutant. Carbon dioxide is produced by every living thing that uses oxygen to survive. You see, plants breathe carbon dioxide and give off oxygen which animals breathe. Plants and animals need each other. I agree that pollution such as burning rivers, soot in the air, and plastic in the ocean is bad.

The Impossible Whopper is not vegetarian. Vegetarians have a lifestyle which has been practiced over many years and takes a lot of dietary management because of our body's need for protein. Burger King will tell you that the Impossible Whopper is cooked on the same grill as real beef Whoppers and has mayonnaise as a condiment. People who are eating the Impossible Whopper to keep the climate from changing are fooling themselves. As far as the electric cars that are being fitted with lithium batteries, what a boondoggle! Most of our lithium comes from the South American salt flats. It takes 500,000 gallons of water to produce one ton of lithium. Once the lithium is removed from the ground, it is spread around to dry, which takes months. The salt in the water is destroying rivers and streams, makes water undrinkable, destroys fish and kills animals. Lithium degrades-which makes it not very cost-effective to recycle. The University of Bolivia has proclaimed that lithium is not the answer to electrifying cars, in fact it is no answer at all!

 From VP Al Gore we heard about "global warming" until the winter of 2003 when the East Coast from Washington D.C. to Boston measured their snow not by the inch, but by the foot. Then all of a sudden it was "climate change." The politicization of climate change is detrimental to our planet because it obligates resources from a non-issue that could be used to do some real good. For instance, India and China have an air-quality problem so they are now planting trees to help clean up the air! India had 800,000 volunteers plant 1 million trees in a 24 hour period! NASA says that this greening of India and China is very visible from outer space! If you wish to help our planet stop chasing climate change and work to stop the deforestation of the rain forest in South America. Work to stop the dumping of plastics into our oceans which is now in our food chain.

For about 10 years I have lived on a short street of three blocks. In the time we have lived there I can count 12 trees that have been removed. Stop denouncing dairy and meat because we are going to remove all the cows for being too gassy and plant some trees. When it comes to climate change I refer you to the following: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.

In closing, I ask the following two questions: #1 what is the optimum temperature of the earth? Nobody knows! #2 Why is climate change always "bad?” Maybe a little warmer or a little cooler could actually be better? When Joe Biden was asked if reducing fossil fuel usage would put 200,000 people out of work, would he? He responded, "absolutely!” Hillary Clinton said that she would put all the coal mines and coal miners out of work! Al Gore made a movie about climate change that made him $50 million! Stop destroying the lives of countless people while addressing the nonissue of "climate change"! I challenge you to get out of your Prius and do something that really matters!

Stan Struckmeyer

Albion

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