Archive: Opinions

Readers of the Lansing Star will recall my letter recently about the possible jail time that two men faced who anchored their small lobsterboat so as to prevent the unloading of 40,000 tons of coal.

In dropping the criminal charges against these men on Monday the District Attorney for Bristol County declared: ““[the decision] was … made with our concern for their children, the children of Bristol County and beyond in mind. Climate change is one of the gravest crises our planet has ever faced. In my humble opinion, the political leadership on this issue has been gravely lacking.”

The two men O’Hara and Ward were grateful to the DA putting into his own words the very reason they took the action of blocking the delivery of the coal to the Brayton Point coal fired power plant in Massachusetts.  But, looking across the bay at the plant (which this year is burning more coal than last year) they voiced the need for the public to create the pressure needed to cause governments and industry to do the right thing and move away from all fossil fuels and adopt renewable energy.

As Ward has said “This summer scientists argued for the first time that the collapse of some of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is now inevitable, guaranteeing 10 feet of sea level rise from those glaciers alone.” He continued by saying if you believe climate change is happening then you cannot sit by and let business as usual continue.

Locally, fracking our state, refiring the AES power plant on Cayuga Lake, building capacity for liquefied natural gas on Seneca Lake are moves in the wrong direction.  Individually, as businesses, and as governments implementation of renewable energy must become a top imperative.  Totally moving to renewable energy by 2030 has been shown to be economically and technologically feasible with today’s technology.

Dr Wm Klepack
Dryden, NY

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