Abhinav Anne’s wonderful Jan. 13 op-ed (“There are lessons to be learned in ashes of California’s fires”) could not have stated our climate emergency any better. The California fires have shown us that the effects of climate change are growing to the point in which we are in danger of losing the battle against global warming.
Besides the heartbreak of losing lives and losing homes, there are obvious economic factors here that cannot be ignored: What will it cost to clean up and rebuild from such a disaster? What will happen to the insurance industry if insurance companies cannot afford to reimburse clients for such a huge amount? What will happen to homeowners and renters whose insurance is canceled? How can state, local and federal governments find the funding to not only clean up but also to prevent these catastrophes?
At Citizens’ Climate Lobby, we lobby with our members of Congress in a nonpartisan way, trying to find common ground so that we can move forward at a much more rapid pace. We fought hard for incentives for renewable energies in the Inflation Reduction Act, and we are fighting now for permitting reform, expansion of our electrical grid, reforestation and finally, a carbon fee, which modeling has shown would help us mitigate climate change more quickly than almost anything else.
We will continue to fight so that Anne, along with our children and grandchildren, inherit a healthy and biodiverse planet.
God willing, the next administration and the new Congress will treat this as the emergency that it is.
— Francesca Kelly, co-chair, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Greater Highland Park/Deerfield Chapter
When will we stop?
As Los Angeles burned, scientists made an announcement that 2024 was the hottest year on record.
With temperatures rising around the globe, scientists are warning that the world has entered a dangerous new era of chaotic floods, storms and fires made worse by human-caused climate change.
The firestorms ravaging our country’s second-largest city are just the latest in extreme weather that is growing more furious as well as more unpredictable. Wildfires are highly unusual in Southern California in January, which is supposed to be the rainy season. The same is true for cyclones in Appalachia, where Hurricanes Helene and Milton tore through mountain communities in October.
Wildfires are burning hotter and moving faster. Storms are getting bigger and carrying more moisture. And soaring temperatures worldwide are leading to heat waves and drought, which can be devastating on their own.
Around the globe, extreme weather and searing heat killed thousands of people last year and displaced millions. In Europe in 2023, extreme heat contributed to at least 47,000 deaths. In the United States, heat-related deaths have doubled in recent decades.
“We’re in a new era now,” said former Vice President Al Gore, who has sounded the alarm over climate change for decades. “These climate-related extreme events are increasing, both in frequency and intensity, quite rapidly.”
The question remains: When are we going to stop killing our planet from burning fossil fuels to power our homes, cars and industries?
— Ron Sadler, Highland Park
Insurance rates
In response to Rick Knight’s letter regarding homeowners insurance (“Opposite of leadership,” Jan. 15), some additional information is required to understand why politics did come into play and California is partially at fault.
California only recently started discussing forward-looking modeling to develop insurance rates. Prior to that, rates could only be developed based upon historical data. If climate change is truly the factor for the fires, insurers should subsequently be able to develop rates on a changing climate. The state long resisted this approach.
California’s insurance commissioner is largely at fault for the insurance struggles the state faces.
— Steve Rosenbaum Jr., Chicago
Practical approach
Finally, a letter in the Tribune makes sense on climate change, thanks to John C. Engle (“Climate change a reality,” Jan. 15).
We can disagree about the causes of climate change, but we cannot disagree that we are experiencing wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, flooding, droughts, etc. Maybe we are experiencing more, but it really doesn’t matter. We have to deal with them. We will not eliminate them.
Spend our money on dealing with the effects. Manage the forests, build reservoirs to hold water, maybe don’t build houses in vulnerable areas, bury powerlines, build seawalls, build dams in flood-prone areas, and on and on.
Addressing the root causes of climate change is fine, but beneficial impact will take years, probably decades. Money spent on dealing with these catastrophic events will have immediate benefits.
— Bill Adamson, Naperville
Fanning the flames
The Steve Kelley cartoon that ran in the Thursday Tribune is utterly detestable but, given my expectations of Kelley’s cartoons, hardly surprising. Gov. Gavin Newsom, whom President-elect Donald Trump has in his characteristically clever, mature and caring fashion called “Gov. Newscum,” is on the ground in Los Angeles marshaling resources to fight the unprecedented wildfires in that city. As that city and its residents struggle through this disastrous hardship, Kelley, ever one to piggyback on the worst of MAGA impulses to insult, deride and lie about Democrats or anyone who opposes the MAGA political agenda, contributes a despicable cartoon depicting the governor’s “pants on fire.”
When the history of the fires and the response to them is written, none of us will forget the spread of disinformation and the political cheap shots taken by Trump, Kelley and others of their ilk. Newsom and other political leaders are not perfect, and there were mistakes in preparations for dealing with the situation, which has been fueled by the Santa Ana winds kicked up to unprecedented velocities by climate change — something MAGA acolytes deny. But Newsom is on the ground there and working to end the tragedy.
Kelley, as always, merely fans the flames.
— Mac Brachman, Chicago
Carbon tax needed
Thanks for the article “Planet records hottest year ever, breaches key threshold” (Jan. 12). As a backdrop for this story, we’re watching Los Angeles burn. The predictions by scientists continue to ring true about ever-growing warming trends due to greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. If warming trends continue, it will mean increased deaths, destruction, species loss and sea level rise from the extreme weather events.
The American taxpayer foots the bill for these costs while fossil fuel companies enjoy record profits.
A solution to this is to change who pays for these damages. A tax, or fee, imposed on the producers of fossil fuels for the harms caused by their products would accelerate the transition to cleaner forms of energy. It would also drive innovation and clean-energy business opportunities. Most economists agree that if the fee were returned regularly to households as a carbon dividend check, the economy and consumers would avoid economic harm.
Then maybe we would stop seeing “hottest year ever” headlines.
— Dorelle Ackermann, Mokena, Illinois
Taken for granted
I think many of us who can wake up in our own home from a warm, cozy bed on any given day, walk a few feet into the shower, then go into the kitchen and join the family for a nice breakfast, maybe throw a load of laundry in the washer nearby, cut up some fruit or bake some cookies for when the kids come home from school, or perhaps sit down at our desk and begin working at home or even just while away some time reading the Chicago Tribune online, should also fall on our knees and say a prayer or make a donation to help all those folks who lost their homes in the California fires and are now denied these common, everyday luxuries that many of us take for granted.
It truly makes me feel grateful and opens up my eyes to how lucky I am.
— Patricia Roberts, Lockport
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