Letter: Climate change not ‘a lesser concern’
Shafts of sunlight filter through the forest canopy strike smoke from fires burning outside family huts at an Mbuti pygmy hunting camp in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve outside the town of Epulu, Congo on March 21, 2010. Credit: AP / Rebecca Blackwell
Regarding the letter “Climate change is a lesser concern” [Dec. 31], the recently concluded Paris meeting was not about events that “may or may not happen.” It was about serious situations already happening throughout the world. For example, 14 of the last 15 years have been the hottest on record, with 2015 the hottest ever recorded.
Only by taking strong action now can humanity avoid the worst consequences of climate change. Those events — increased droughts, floods and sea level rise — are already proving serious and won’t be lessened by comparison to the also significant problem of terrorism.
Gregory Alexander, Stony Brook
