Letter: Teen activist Greta Thunberg makes waves on climate

Teen activist makes waves on climate

Before giving her doomsday speech at the UN, Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate activist from S

weden, should have looked around to see what fossil fuel-generated amenities she and her friends use daily [“‘How dare you’: Teen scolds UN on climate,” News, Sept. 24]. Of those, which would she eliminate?

Fossil fuels are the magic elixir without which society as we know it would not exist, never mind future generations.

Can we cut down on carbon emissions? Yes. Can we eliminate the use of fossil fuels? Absolutely not.

Yes, Greta, there will still be a world in the future, as long as no one pulls the nuclear trigger.

Thomas Tierney,

  Greenlawn

It wasn’t enough that President Donald Trump degraded the war hero John McCain, insulted Gold Star parents and mimicked a disabled person. He now is feuding with and defaming teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.

The president says he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, but guess who is being nominated for it? Yes, that teenage girl. I hope she gets it so she can thumb her nose at him.

Gene Reynolds,

  Ridge

Students mustn’t neglect reading

Baldwin schools Superintendent Shari L. Camhi is correct that our educational system is not moving in the right direction in preparing students for the changing technological world [“Update the high school experience,” Opinion, Sept. 16].

However, we must never forget that education must encircle the students’ entire realm. The many courses they study for graduation will fall short of the world they are entering.

Surely, knowledge of history and literature creates an educated human. And we achieve this by reading. We must never forget the words of the great essayist Francis Bacon: “Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.”

John J. Scibelli,

  Forest Hills

Editor’s note: The writer is a retired high school and college English teacher.