Weeping for Our Climate 

Mankind has a very real danger closing in on it: This danger is moving at a rate that is making a mockery of avoidance and denial. It is climate change (Mailbox, Sept. 1). Science, that purveyor of the magnificence through which civilization flourishes, also provides us with the methods and markers to gauge the degree and rate of this change. Despite occasional disagreements, 97 percent of climate scientists agree not only about the magnitude of the change, but about the consequences. And, most ominously, they agree this change is speeding up.

You don't need your house to burn down, or be swept away by a flood, or for your water to be rationed, or to suffer 115-degree heat to accept that while we may not be able to stop this catastrophe, we must make substantial effort to mitigate what and where we can or our future will be "absolute global chaos."

It doesn't matter if mankind is a major driver of this change, or whether the change is a result of natural forces, there is evidence that we can mitigate its effects. Our ingenuity has never been inadequate to any task, but time is running out on this one.

Larry Hourany, McKinleyville