Editor,

After reading Gene Lyons’ hysterical column today I immediately clicked on R.E.M.’s YouTube (“It’s the End of the World”) for comfort.  Then I searched the medicine cabinet for some old Valium capsules (which I would gladly share with him).

Mr. Lyons’ dire predictions originate from the same apocryphal, doom & gloom prophets who famously foisted similar rhetoric upon us during the past 50+ years.  Remember Paul “The Population Bomb” Ehrlich – 1968?  Ted “We only have 10 years to save the oceans” Danson – 1988?  Al “The polar ice cap will be gone in 5-7 years” Gore – 2007?  Alexandra “The world is going to end in 12 years” Ocasio Cortez – 2019?
All these fatalistic prognosticators insist that government regulation, submission to international agencies’ regulation, and massive taxation are our only hope of salvation.  (Of course, nuclear power would eliminate much of the CO2 emissions over America, but the prophets ignore this obvious remedy.)
Be very skeptical when politicians and their lackeys in the national media (or is it the reverse?) spew their “man-made climate change” doomsday scenarios.  The remedies ALWAYS require the Democratic Party control of federal government (although their eco-policies ALWAYS fail), citizens to sacrifice the comforts and conveniences of modern life, and massive tax increases.
Meanwhile, China and India continue unabated development of industry and consumption of fossil fuels.  How would Mr. Lyons persuade their governments to adopt his remedies?
Rufus T. Firefly
Biddeford

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