LETTER: United States a key polluter

Dear Editor,

This letter is in response to the anti-environmental editorial of Jeremy Kidd. Two facts provided by the United States Environmental Protection Agency are quite different from his opinion.

Fact: The average temperature of the planet has risen by approximately 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last century. Fact: This rise in temperature has resulted in the ocean level rising 8 inches over the last century. This rise is a combination of a 2-inch rise due to melting polar ice caps and a 6-inch rise due to the ocean’s expansion from the new warmth.

The United States is by far the largest contributor to greenhouse gases. When Bush decided to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol, a pollution reduction treaty signed by 165 other countries; he communicated how ignorant he is to this serious issue. When our nation decides we will not participate in global attempts to reduce CO2 emissions, it is not like we refuse to sign a treaty with just one country.

Our pollution that we create is a major cause of the reason the Kyoto conference was called for. If the United States continues on its current polluting path, we will be responsible for at least an additional degree in the average global temperature. Remember that for every degree raised, the ocean rises eight inches.

It is true that we as an industrialized nation could build dikes in order to protect ourselves from rising sea levels, but other countries such as Egypt and Indonesia could not. Bush needs to wake up and realize that by withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol he is dooming the treaty’s efficacy as well as everyone’s quality of life.

Jay Carlson