Letters to the editor for Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017

Time to take action to find climate solutions

Watching our seventh pineapple express (atmospheric river) in four months, I wonder, what is coming next? I know part of the answer is more of the same — our weather is changing and not for the better.

A neighbor in west Carson recorded almost 36 inches of rain from October through mid-February, three times Carson’s normal 12 inches per year. Alex Hoon, a U.S. Weather Service official in Reno who, when interviewed by KTVN Reno, called our weather over the past four months “extremely remarkable.”

Climate change experts have determined that CO2 in the atmosphere is causing normal weather patterns to be warmer and more intense. On Thursday, Feb. 9, the KTVN meteorologists remarked on two other facts — first, Reno’s temperature of 59 degrees at 6 a.m. in early February and second, this day’s snow level at Mt. Rose was 9,000 feet, above most ski resorts. The massive amount of rain in atmospheric rivers damages infrastructure (Oroville Dam), closes roads, causes auto crashes, closes schools and businesses, and costs residents, government and insurance companies millions of dollars for cleanup and repair.

Some of our elected representatives pretend this growing menace to the public does not require action. Are our officials more concerned with protecting the fossil fuel industry than protecting the public? For information on one bipartisan effort to get our elected representatives to act, please check out citizensclimatelobby.org on the web. Also, at 6 p.m. today in Room 100 of the Cedar Building at WNC, the Carson City Citizens Climate Lobby is putting on a free movie entitled, “Before the Flood,” which seems right on time.

Bill Prowse

Carson City