The council was correct: Climate change is a threat
With regard to Longmont City Council’s recently having declared a climate emergency, a local meteorologist with four decades of experience is appallingly questioning whether in fact there is a climate emergency. Meteorologists are by nature members of the scientific community, who carefully observe and chronicle climatological events. Typically, they do not play loosely with known and accepted scientific facts.
To dismiss the dangers of methane gas as a non-starter? Hardly! It is one of a number of hazardous volatile organic compounds, absorbing the sun’s heat and warming the atmosphere. For this reason, it is considered a dangerous greenhouse gas, like carbon dioxide. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, it is initially far more devastating to the climate because of how effectively it absorbs heat. In the first two decades after its release, methane is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide. About 25% of man-made global warming is caused by methane emissions.
Carbon dioxide may well be colorless, odorless, and life-giving, and may be miniscule as produced by Longmont citizens, but multiply those microscopic amounts by all that released from all the other citizens in the world, and the result is an increasingly existential threat to all of humankind, all of creation, and the entire planet itself.
To look only within the boundaries of Longmont is unconscionably myopic. Doing so stands as an unwelcome rebuff to dedicated meteorologists throughout the world who have recognized the obvious and extreme dangers of climate change. Kudos to the Longmont City Council for their exemplary foresight!
Tom Stumpf
Longmont
Climate change is a political problem now
I’m a Ph.D. student studying physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The scientific community provides an interesting vantage point from which to watch the politics around climate change — ever in the news lately — play out. Pretty much everyone agrees about the existential nature of the problem, but it’s often hard for practically minded scientists who want to see their way to tangible benchmarks of achievement to feel empowered to act on this issue. We would like it to be a scientific problem, but it’s not. It’s really a political problem at this point.
So over the past few years, about a dozen of us — mostly physicists — joined the Citizens’ Climate Lobby. They’re about as close as you can get to having a scientific mindset on how to solve the hard problem here — the politics. Have specific, achievable, legislative asks, be persistent, and above all be respectful of all views and to all parties. Many of us have gone to Washington, D.C., to lobby for effective national climate action. I find that climate change is a stress-inducing topic, and, as ever, the best way to address the stress is to work toward eliminating its cause.
Daniel Palken
Boulder
Vote for local women
I live in Ward 3. Our Longmont City Council representative, Bonnie Finley, is term-limited. Susie Hidalgo-Fahring is hoping to replace her. As a hard-working woman with a family, Susie is running to represent regular working people in Longmont. She is a bilingual education teacher who rents her home. Being on the district’s negotiations committee, she has learned to work collaboratively to find solutions. These skills and her kind and respectful approach is just what we need in these divisive political times.
Likewise, Joan Peck is hoping to serve another term as one of our at-large representatives. She too is a coalition builder who has been a tireless force in trying to bring the peak-service commuter train to Longmont. Joan deserves credit for getting air quality monitoring for oil and gas emissions in place, has advocated for inclusionary affordable housing and to adopt policies promoting environmental sustainability. While she’s accomplished a whole lot in four years, her work is not finished. Especially with all the development happening, we need Joan on council to continue to keep people and planet in the profit equation.
Please join me in proudly voting for these two hard-working women who are all about representing everyone in Longmont!
Shari Malloy
Longmont
Appreciate and practice your Colorado voting rights
Many people are unaware that Colorado is one of the few states where voting rights have been restored. This spring a new voting reform became law, which restores the voting rights of people on parole. A person sentenced to parole is considered to have completed their full term of imprisonment according to the state constitution. Colorado is now unique in restoration of disenfranchised citizens as voters.
When canvassing petitions, there are a number of people who claim that they cannot vote. They believe that they are blocked by laws. While they certainly have an opinion, they do not vote. This is a false assumption in Colorado.
States control voting roles, not the federal government. Colorado is different. A former felon in Kentucky needs a pardon from the governor there to vote. If that person moves to Colorado, they may register to vote and exercise that right in any election. No special permissions or paperwork is needed.
Colorado voters can be people with a past criminal conviction; people currently in jail, but awaiting trial; people on probation; people currently in jail for a misdemeanor offense only. People convicted of crimes that are not felonies have no issue with voting. They can even vote from jail. A voter with a local address who is in jail will be a simple address change for the county clerk. It is up to the voter to inform the Secretary of State as to address changes.
When the sentence of a felony conviction in Colorado comes to end, the felon may resume being a voter, or begin if they were not registered before.
If any of this information impacts you or a family member or friend, be excited about voting. Your vote could make a profound difference. There have been many close elections, and your opinion mattered. Let it be counted.
Be a citizen, not a serf.
Paul Tiger
Longmont
