Olivia Box’s recent op-ed was right on point (“Commentary: Like it or not, let’s keep talking about the Maine weather,” July 8). Her description of “June gloom” hit home, and she wrote that the Northeast will continue to get increased precipitation. Climate change is now discussed by average Americans.

The rate of change around us is almost overwhelming. Even as an environmentalist, I am amazed at its rapidity. Although many more people are awakening to the crisis, we hear surprisingly little from our politicians. When the world hits the hottest temperatures ever for two days, our president and legislators need to be offering new legislative plans and our media needs to put them on the front page – not on Page A3.

Scientists have defined the problem, engineers have invented the technology to solve our crisis. Now our citizens need to demand that the politicians pass legislation to get our nation to stop using fossil fuel.

When our house is in order, we can influence the rest of the world to follow this path. Joshua Goldstein and Staffan Qvist (in their 2019 book, “A Bright Future”) explain that, looking at carbon emitted, “Sweden, France and Ontario come in at one-tenth the world average, a level that would solve our problem if all the other countries matched their performance.”

Look at the “June gloom” extending into July and contact Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden and ask them to deal with climate change now. We need a carbon fee and dividend plan now and major revisions to our electrical grid to carry our expanded electrical power.

Nancy Hasenfus
Brunswick