My heart goes out to our fellow Americans in California who are fleeing from massive forest fires. The Los Angeles Times reported that at least 70,000 have evacuated.

The pictures are horror-filled. Disastrous fires are becoming worse and increasing in frequency due to climate change causing warming of the planet. This fire is happening in January, which is hard to fathom.

I look at our beautiful Maine woods and wonder if we are OK here because Maine is so much farther north. But then I remember the massive forest fires in Canada, near our latitude, that have occurred in recent summers. Some were so severe that their smoke polluted the Eastern Seaboard for days.

America has just elected a climate denier and a politician who does not want to face scientific facts. The positive news is that, as American citizens, we can change all this by demanding action to slow climate change. If enough of us speak out or demonstrate the politicians will eventually have to listen.

The technology exists to improve this situation and to move us all off of using fossil fuels. We need our citizenry to realize this is a problem for them, not just California. We need to pass a carbon price and learn more about carbon removal techniques. We need to fight the fossil fuel industry that continues to make billions damaging our world.

We must speak up now. Our grandchildren may eventually ask us why we let this happen to their world when we could have made a difference.

Nancy Hasenfus
Brunswick