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Letters to the Editor, Jan. 9 Monday Jan 9, 2017 at 12:01 AM Fair pay needed I take objection to the words "peddled," "debunked," "fixed in stone by law" and "life choices" in the letter titled "Equal pay narrative false." The writer states that using a fact or two would have strengthened Tonia Moro's argument. Here are a few from the 2016 report "Count Her In," published by Women's Foundation of Oregon (www.womensfoundationoforegon.org): 1. Women earn 53 to 83 cents (depending on race and ethnicity) for every dollar white men earn. 2. The gender wealth gap for women is larger, 35 cents on the dollar. 3. Women in the two highest paid occupations face the most severe earnings gap; doctors 66 cents on the dollar and lawyers 64 cents on the dollar. 4. A typical woman with a graduate or professional degree earns 8.4 percent less than a man with a bachelor's degree. 5. After one year of graduating from college women make 82 cents of what their male peers earn. This disparity grows over a lifetime. There is no law but there needs to be one. Our Oregon Legislature has the opportunity to pass a fair pay bill in 2017. Please contact your senator and representative and ask them to support a fair pay bill. Regina Ayars Ashland Climate change is a threat Climate-change deniers can’t deny that we breathe to get oxygen to our cells so they can make energy. And where does Earth’s oxygen come from? According to National Geographic, 28 percent comes from rainforests, 70 percent from marine plants and 2 percent from other sources. Trees, algae and phytoplankton produce oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis, a process that converts carbon dioxide and sunlight into chemical energy in the form of glucose — the key energy source in most organisms. Our anthropocentric worldview devalues the natural environment and subjects it to our destructive behaviors, such as releasing heat-trapping emissions from burning fossil fuels, warming the planet and saturating the ocean with CO2, which disrupts its carbon cycle and alters its ecology. Instead of polluting oceans and denuding rainforests, we should improve their health to facilitate their production of life-sustaining oxygen. Obdurate climate-change denial impedes efforts to reverse the damaging effects of global warming. And no, snow doesn’t contradict a warming world. In fact, warming causes more moisture in the air which leads to more precipitation. Climate models predict continued warming — a threat to the biological processes that make Earth habitable for air-breathing humans and other animals. Marie Arvette Medford Snow removal needed Since I have lived in and managed several manufactured home parks, I would like to make a suggestion. Aren't there some enterprising young men that could rent a small snow plow and clear the roads in the manufactured home parks in this area? The park managers do not clear the roads, especially in the senior parks. Most do not have the equipment and in many cases are elderly themselves. I am sure each tenant would be willing to contribute a reasonable amount of money for this service. We don't get that much snow like we did this week so it would not be a full-time job but a necessary service. I have been stuck in my home due to this mess and my grocery list keeps getting bigger. I have no family in the area and most of my friends are in the same situation. At the age of 90, I do not shovel snow! Ruth G. Davis Medford