Nearing the point of no return

DEAR EDITOR:

Lounging on my deck and basking in the afternoon sun, enjoying the clear blue sky, I can’t help feeling that this novel coronavirus is a blessing in disguise (although an unpleasant one). As I look, there is not a single jet airplane spewing tons of CO2 daily into the atmosphere.

On any given day, when it’s business as usual, the warmth we add to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels is equivalent to 400,000 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs, producing truly dire effects. I can’t help but think some greater power than man is taking over to stop the degradation of our environment.

Our president said the COVID-19 pandemic was a hoax and dragged his feet in preparing for the invasion of the virus. In a similar manner, he declared the warming of our planet a hoax. Because of his procrastination, untold thousands of Americans will die prematurely. We will survive the epidemic in spite of the ignorance of this administration; however, such is not the case regarding humanity’s impact on global ecosystems.

Scientists are telling us that we are nearing the point of no return when it comes to rescuing the earth from permanent destruction. As a registered chemical engineer, I fully agree that the scientific evidence is overwhelming that we are facing ominous repercussions and this is no hoax.

Hopefully, this November we will vote in an environmentally-friendly president who will limit fracking and extreme extraction to stop the contamination of our water supply, protect the oceans, and reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.

Thomas Vasil Rome