As a nation and a state, we Americans need to put aside petty political differences and distractions and remain focused on solutions to our real “Big Lie” – reliance on fossil fuels, even if its use is tempered with cleaner alternatives, natural gas, diesel and biofuels. These still require combustion and produce C02 and greenhouse gases via ugly smokestack emissions spewing a mix of oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, along with submicron particulates endangering our collective healths.

Have we learned nothing from the Clean Air Act’s success story of prior decades? This controversial law improved the lives of countless unnamed Americans with improved respiratory health, which translated to fewer missed work and school days for our children.

Curbing our insatiable appetite for fossil fuels is within our sites technologically, but faces some cultural hurdles to survive challenges from a greedy industrial giant feeding our 401(k) pocketbooks.

Solar, battery and geothermal alternatives are rapidly becoming feasible, so what’s the rub? Who really wins in this culture war – mankind or Mother Nature? Before you answer this rhetorical question, remember that “it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature,” as the commercial from our youth concludes.

Ray Whittemore
Standish