Larry von Thun is so right, that the world needs to shift to green energy alternatives, and I will add, right now. But I would also like to remind readers that a few measurements are NOT data upon which to make such a determination. The world’s meteorologists, atmospheric chemists, etc., have been measuring day in, day out, the temperatures and trends worldwide, and for well more than a century now. The trend toward global climate change is plain to see, no matter what local conditions may be, even for decades. The data speaks. The science speaks.

When gas rationing went into effect to provide gasoline for the war effort in World War II, posters went up everywhere asking, “Is this trip necessary?” Do people really have to drive hundreds of miles and sit in traffic idling away to go skiing? How about cross-country skiing in your own neighborhood? Why use Amazon when the U.S. Postal Service will deliver packages, since it is delivering regular mail anyway? Combine errands when you do drive, to more efficiently and cheaply use the fuel you buy. Walk, ride a bike, take mass transit if you can, carpool. The world we have known is rapidly changing, and not, from a human perspective, for the better. The trends toward more extreme weather are not going away, and this disastrous, tragic and very, very expensive change will only accelerate and get worse if we don’t rein in our fossil fuel consumption.

Carolyn Wiedmer, Littleton