Document text
September 01. 2015 12:01AM Letters to the Editor, Sept. 1  Change wildfire policy Entering the third month of the third year of choking smoke in the Rogue Valley prompts me to suggest that we need a change in wildfire management. We are told that wildfires that do not damage property or directly affect people are good as they are "natural" (remember smallpox is natural), and they burn off ground cover, leaving healthy trees. That may or may not be true, but it is certainly true that allowing tens of thousands of acres to burn and fill the Rogue Valley with choking smoke is not "natural" or good. Every person in the valley from 90 seconds old to 90 years old breathes smoke 24/7 for months on end. Not only is health affected but economics as well. The real estate business, tourism, wine tasting, sports, outdoor entertainment, etc., are affected. The present fire management policy must be changed. It is irresponsible to leave it in place. Jim Horner Jacksonville Global cooling I can understand why we might be concerned with global warming now and maybe in the future, but if “we” are causing it then “we” really don’t have much to worry about for the future. In a couple of hundred years all our oil, natural gas and coal will be gone and so will most of the cause of global warming. Then we’ll have to start being concerned about global “cooling” because then with most of the world covered in solar panels absorbing the sun’s energy and heat and no more oil, gas and coal being burned, things will start to cool down a lot. I wonder what global cooling will do? Curt Kline Medford Decorate train heroes When are three servicemen "not involved in actual conflict with the enemy" when they, unarmed, rush an armed terrorist who is an enemy by definition of our government advising we are engaged in a war on terrorism? The military branches of which these young warriors are members should award them high military combat honors; the civilian professor that took a bullet, the freedom medal! J.D. Waite Medford A meaningful start The dominant global warming gas emitted by US human activity is carbon dioxide (80 percent of total). Coming in second is methane (15 percent). The largest source of carbon dioxide, at 31 percent of the total, is power plants generating domestic, commercial, and industrial electricity. The recent EPA Clean Power Plan reduces carbon dioxide emissions from power plants 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. Even though this represents less than 10 percent of total emissions, given the refusal of Congress to acknowledge this problem or undertake any action, this represents a meaningful start. At our current rate of accelerating greenhouse gas emissions, within 20 years we must eliminate our fossil fuel dependency. Although methane leakage regulations issued by the EPA the following week begin to address the methane problem from new wells, neither do they go far enough. The EPA effort overall does not move us anywhere near far enough towards our critical goal. We are confronted by a global warming crisis requiring concerted individual and collective effort. The EPA rules are a good start, but remain inadequate. Meanwhile, drilling in the Arctic, promoting natural gas fracking, and ‘all of the above’ policies represent disastrous steps backward. Amid considerable disappointment, SOCAN supports EPA's efforts. Alan Journet, co-facilitator, Southern Oregon Climate Action Now Jacksonville http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20150901/OPINION/150909985 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->