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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (July 11, 2018)
2 Wednesday, July 11, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Climate change is everyone’s problem ---------- By Steve Nugent Guest Columnist Welcome Quilters! ---------- Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let- ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday. To the Editor: This whole gun debate we are having in this country just bothers me. I must admit that one could categorize me as peace and love, having been a hippy in my youth, RN by profession and one who finds spirituality in the outdoors. Having said that, I have raised three amaz- ing adults. One of my sons has always had an interest in guns although believe me I tried my best to discourage him. He has an arsenal that I wouldn’t reveal to any of my life.love.yoga. friends. Yet he is probably one of the most gentle, caring men I know. I always look forward to reading the Bunkhouse Chronicle in The Nugget. I know that the columnist and I don’t see eye-to-eye (myself being much more liberal, of course) but always after reading his articles I have a different perspective to consider and always try to do so. I don’t understand his stand on gun rights. When the Second Amendment was written, I know that we didn’t have high-capacity ARs at our disposal, which is what he said he would shoot to celebrate Independence Day. Contrary to how he might portray me as someone who wants to “control” and once we eliminate semi-automatic weapons then the “slippery slope” will lead to all gun removal. Nothing is further from the truth. Gun violence in this country is at an unac- ceptable level and we have to start some- where! Not to minimize the killing of just one person, but if a person wanted to shoot into a See LETTERS on page 24 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Sunny Sunny Mostly Sunny Partly Cloudy Sunny Sunny 87/57 96/60 97/58 94/57 94/57 96/57 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken Graphic Design: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partners: Patti Jo Beal & Vicki Curlett Accounting: Erin Bordonaro Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Owner: J. Louis Mullen The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $45; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55. Published Weekly. ©2018 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. The average citizen has no idea what is causing the climate to change, how fast it is changing or how this is impacting them. Many peo- ple believe that CO2 emis- sions from power plants are the primary contributor causing the atmosphere to act like the glass on a green- house. The reality is that the CO 2 emissions from cars are essentially equal to that of power plants in the U. S. This makes every driver of an internal com- bustion engine vehicle a contributor to the problem. Car CO2 emissions do not just dissipate on the ground, they migrate up to the lower atmosphere where they can persist for up to 1,000 years. Many people do not understand the difference between weather and cli- mate. Weather happens real-time, where climate is a measure of land and ocean temperatures over a long period of time. People tell me that if the planet is really warming then it should be warm everywhere. This is nonsense because the poles will always be cooler and it will always be colder in winter. The jet-stream is moving more errati- cally now, bringing cold fronts down to Florida and recently extreme heat to the east and mid-west. Because the oceans are warmer now, hurricanes are more fre- quent, extreme and occur earlier in the year. More moisture is in the atmo- sphere, so severe floods, hail storms and deep-snow are more common. Flooding events are occurring somewhere in the U.S. almost every week. Maryland just had 1000- year floods for 2 years in a row. Texas just had record hailstorm damage, costing over $1B. High- temperature records are broken every year across the U.S. Wildfires are larger and more common now. These are not freak events of Mother Nature. They are caused by long-term human activity. The debate whether climate change/ global warming is caused by humans is OVER. It is proven science verified by experts worldwide. Climatologists now have analytical tools that attri- bute individual weather events to climate change. The severe flooding that was caused by hurricane Harvey in Houston has been 100 percent attributed to climate change. The eco- nomic damage that climate change is causing in the U.S. is rising every year. The estimated cost to the U. S. economy in 2017 is $300B, half the budget for the U. S. military. Even those that live in areas unaffected by hur- ricanes and tornadoes are being impacted, including in Central Oregon. Besides the recurring wildfires here, the cost of food has been increasing due to crop fail- ures in Florida and lack of water in California. Water supplies are being poisoned by toxic algae, including Salem’s. FEMA payouts for weather disasters con- tinue to increase each year, increasing our tax bur- den and the national debt. Ocean warming is causing many wild fish and shellfish stocks to be endangered, including the wild salmon fishery off the west coast. Many west-coast rivers don’t have runs anymore. The incidents of insect- borne diseases including West Nile Virus, Zika, Dengue and Spotted Fever have TRIPLED in the U.S. from 2004 to 2016. Air pollution is respon- sible for 200,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, more than cigarettes or wars. Global warming is now accelerating because we have reached a “tipping point,” caused by effects that reinforce warming. Shrinkage of the ice caps reduces the heat reflected back into space. Thawing permafrost releases meth- ane gas, a greenhouse gas 27 times more potent than CO2. Forests, which along with the oceans are the ONLY absorbers of CO 2 , are shrinking at an alarm- ing rate due to wildfires and deforestation for farming. Global warming is one of the top threats to mankind. It’s time for everyone to take this seriously at the ballot box and in your per- sonal choices. Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.