LETTERS: On Paris Accord fallout

Paris Accord fallout

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was wrong in supporting President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement.

Last June, 31 leading U.S. scientific organizations, including the American Meteorological Society, sent a letter to Congress calling for climate action and stating that climate change impacts in the United States already include greater threats of extreme weather events, sea level rise, water scarcity, heat waves, and wildfires.

It’s a basic moral tenet that our responsibilities are greater when our actions put others at risk.

We must urge our members of Congress to push back against this recklessness and enact policies, such as a revenue-neutral carbon fee and dividend program, that would reduce emissions while protecting the economy. It’s crucial to focus on climate solutions.

Terry Hansen, Oak Creek, Wisconsin

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Are you, too, fighting mad about President Donald Trump pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accord? Then let’s fight back three times a day by adopting an eco-friendly plant-based diet.

Yes, our diet is pivotal. A 2010 United Nations report blames animal agriculture for 19 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, 38 percent of land use, and 70 percent of global freshwater consumption.

Carbon dioxide is emitted by burning forests to create animal pastures and by fossil fuels combustion to operate farm machinery, trucks, factory farms, and slaughterhouses. The more damaging methane and nitrous oxides are released from the digestive tracts of cattle and from animal waste cesspools, respectively.

In an environmentally-sustainable world, meat and dairy products in our diet must be replaced by vegetables, fruits and grains, just as fossil fuels are replaced by wind, solar and other pollution-free energy sources.

Each of us has the power to protest Trump’s failure to maintain America’s leadership in moderating climate change, simply and effectively, by what we choose at the grocery store.

Joel Kriviak, McAllen