Letters to the Editor 11/3

A step forward

It’s been over a year since the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and there is still work to be done. A recent CNN survey found that 69 percent of Americans still favor increased offshore oil drilling. Have we already forgotten what happened? The BP oil spill was the largest in our history. The Gulf Coast is still being cleaned up, animals still being rehabilitated and the natural habitat trying to return to normal. Are cheap oil prices worth the environmental risk?

We should invest in environmentally safe energy sources. This can help decrease our dependence on oil and also help protect our planet. Today, more than 60 percent of our oil is imported. If the United States is not a leader in this source of energy, why try to increase it when we can focus our attention elsewhere to become a leader in renewable energy?

If you research these energy sources, the pros far outweigh the cons. In SLO County the issue is very relevant to us because of the proposed solar farm in the Carrizo Plains.

We should take a step toward a better future and focus on renewable energies. It’s better for everyone and everything on our planet.

Olivia Dobbs

Atascadero

Really not that hard

There has been much controversy over the issue concerning removing plastic bags from grocery stores in our area. Being a part of a younger generation, I feel it is my duty to take an initiative when it comes to environmental protection.

Plastic bags are an unnecessary luxury that is killing our environment. Our country has taken great steps toward eliminating plastic water bottles, and now it is time to get rid of plastic bags. Reusable bags are cheap, convenient and easy to store.

My family and I have personally followed the example of big companies such as Costco and Trader Joe’s by not using plastic bags. We all have reusable bags in our cars, which has been a great thing for us as well as the environment. I think the next step would be to come up with a biodegradable bag that could be provided in stores (Cal Poly, where are you?). But until that is invented, it really is not that hard to put a few reusable bags in your shopping cart and continue on your merry way.

Emilie Boege

Atascadero

The great motivator

What a great letter by Mr. Andrew Wright (Oct. 28), who was speaking to our elected officials in Congress and the White House, to forgo their taxpayer-paid salaries. I will continue with this letter myself with regard to our California state bubble that burst.

When our state-elected officials were not receiving their paychecks, Democrats and Republicans were crying like a bunch of babies. This was before a balanced budget in California was passed, and one was supposed to be passed or they would forgo their pay. All at once our elected officials came up with a budget, seemingly overnight, and presented it to Gov. Brown.

Gov. Brown signed the Mickey Mouse budget, but they all knew it was all about the elected officials’ pay.

Harold Glasco

Paso Robles

Warming alive & well

Regarding Victor Davis Hansen’s recent commentary “Global Warming — RIP?” (Oct. 27) Hansen thoughtlessly echoes anti-global warming arguments easily found all over the Internet. The “Climategate” theory has been debunked and is old news. About 98 percent of scientists worldwide still agree global warming is real.

A former prolific critic of warming, Richard Muller, surprised skeptics in a recent GOP congressional hearing by testifying that his independent research confirmed that warming is happening, and concluded various scientific teams did indeed go about their work “in a truly unbiased manner.”

Ironically Muller’s research was funded in part by the Koch brothers, billionaire promoters of groups campaigning to deny the facts of global warming. Mr. Hansen and his ilk have the audacity to hypocritically malign the scientific community, and Al Gore in particular, by alleging they are “often profit-minded.”

Why would the Koch brothers support global warming deniers? Could it be to protect their energy conglomerate’s investments and profits? The Kochs, and spokesmen for, some may say, a corrupt fossil fuel industry, and “skeptics” who publish anti-warming books, certainly are no less profit-minded than the Koch brothers. Apparently, in Hansen’s free-market world, profit is in the eye of the beholder: good for some, but not for others.

Joseph Amanzio

Paso Robles

Misleading piece

Victor Davis Hanson’s piece on the death of global warming (Oct. 27) was very misleading. Check out the reports from the World Meteorological Organization (part of the U.N.) on climate. They show that the global temperature is clearly rising and that the last decade was warmer than any other since records have been kept. I am sure he knows this. I am not sure what his motivation is for trying to mislead people.

Robert Schwennicke

Cayucos

Beliefs before health

I love the city of Pismo Beach, but because of the behavior of one of its council members, Ed Waage, I’m happy I don’t live there.

For a year and half, Mr. Waage has been on a misinformation campaign about the APCD’s study on particle pollution from the Oceano Dunes. Despite having his claims rebutted by actual experts in the field, Mr. Waage continues his pro-pollution obsession (he also denies climate change).

To put his ideological beliefs ahead of public health and valid science is an act of dangerous arrogance, perhaps the same arrogance that had Mr. Waage claiming he shared in the Nobel Peace Prize when he ran for City Council.

Andrea Devitt

San Luis Obispo

Kick the addiction

The Oceano Community Services District voted against cleaning the air going from their area to Nipomo because vehicle driving on the beach makes money. Your desire for money gives us living on the mesa polluted air.

We must kick our addiction to vehicles, and the place to start is to stop driving for so-called “recreation.” We need to walk and listen to waves — for our own health and sanity.

Bill Denneen

Nipomo