Jun 24, 2014 2 min read

Because of Jack Pavella’s June 3 letter in response to my May 21 letter, I’d like to expand on my brief “insult” to climate change deniers and the fossil fuel industry.

I’m not sure that bathing, watching TV or listening to compact discs are major contributors to the warming of the planet that the great majority of climate scientists describe and fear. Let’s assume that they are. I’m sure that heating my home and driving my car are major contributors.

Pavella stated that you would have to be a “caveman” to live without petroleum products. This is exactly the point. As long as citizens deny inconvenient truths, we’ll be stuck with elected officials like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who said that although an overwhelming consensus of climate scientists conclude that the planet heating up demands immediate action, he “doesn’t believe it.”

No logical reason. He just doesn’t believe it.

So now, these officials continue with “drill, baby, drill” policies and deny funding for research and development of affordable alternatives to planet-destroying fossil fuels. I guess the choice we’re left with is use fossil fuels or live like “cavemen.”

I have no hope that any meaningful change will occur, especially when a tiny, painless change like a funny-looking light bulb causes politicians like Michele Bachmann to go ballistic and declare that we’re one step from Nazism. Maybe she believes this, maybe not. She’s just a voice for her constituents. This is what is frightening to the reasonable, logical minority – the loss of hope.

Don DeAngelis

Canonsburg