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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 2, 2019)
2 Wednesday, October 2, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N American business leading on climate change By Susan Thomas Springer Guest Columnist Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer9s 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: Friday, September 27, 10 Sisters citizens and one brave child stood on the corners of Highway 20 intersection with Larch Street to smile, wave and share our signs protesting the lack of urgency our government has shown the last 40 years to mitigate the effects of global warming (GW). The people of the world are observing, if not living through, extreme weather events, melting glaciers and polar caps, rising and warming oceans, and species decline across our planet. Very few, indeed, are saying GW is a hoax. What allows even the non-scien- tist to realize humans have made it worse, is the speed of the warming changes. Geologic time stamps for previous warming periods in tree rings, ice cores and strata show the slow advance of warming periods occurred over hundreds if not thousands of years. This current GW is occurring within decades 4 a speed that is unprecedented on Planet Earth. Yes, humans are making it advance this quickly due primarily to our fossil fuel emissions. So, it is for the children who will live to see a very unfriendly planet should we do nothing, that we stand together with them to lift aware- ness and to lift hearts. It is not hopeless to protest, it is in fact hopeful. We were out that day with over 4 million like-minded humans across our planet. Humans have the capacity to slow this effect and to eventually reverse it. We proved that in the late 970s and early 980s. Back then the ozone had holes and we figured out how to close them up by stop- ping the use of polluting toxins. Los Angeles had unhealthy air; we created the catalytic See LETTERS on page 24 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Mostly cloudy Partly cloudy Partly cloudy Mostly sunny Mostly sunny Partly cloudy 61/39 57/38 56/37 65/40 71/45 72/47 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 Graphic Design: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partners: Vicki Curlett & Patti Jo Beal Classifieds & Circulation: Lisa May 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. ©2019 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. It9s great to see so many American businesses taking action against climate change. Leaders in corporate America recognize the overwhelming consensus of climate-change science and are finding solu- tions to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It proves that we are an inno- vative nation where business adjusts to market changes to continue to prosper. CEOs, responsible for quarterly earnings and maximizing shareholder returns, are a risk-averse group. So, they do their homework before deciding to make big changes in how they do business. Consider the maker of Cheerios. Early this year, General Mills committed to convert one million acres of farmland to regenerative agri- culture. These practices (such as cover crops and reduced tillage) store carbon in the soil instead of emitting it. Cur- rently, agriculture generates at least 25 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions. Why would this 150-year-old company, the home of Pills- bury, Betty Crocker and Gold Medal flour, choose to make such a bold change? Govern- ment wasn9t forcing them 4 and neither were their shareholders. It9s because General Mills views climate change as the biggest threat to their continued existence. To harvest basic ingredients such as oats and wheat in future years, they recognize they must improve soil health rather than contribute to the problem. Other innovative com- panies are actively working to reduce their carbon foot- print. John Deere continues to <aggressively seek ways to reduce our energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions= by taking actions like design- ing energy-efficient facto- ries and dealerships. Cargill is committed to achieving a 30 percent GHG reduction across its North American beef supply chain by 2030. Disney, Starbucks, Tesla, Patagonia and others are leading the way. Companies including Walmart, Nestle, McDon- alds and PepsiCo are reduc- ing their environmental foot- print by pledging to use 100 percent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025 or earlier. American ingenuity is also seen in start- ups who are finding cleaner ways to heat our homes, man- ufacture clothes and dispose of waste. Because these companies operate in our capitalist econ- omy where they must run a profitable company, they don9t change business prac- tices until they have the facts. They know that 97 percent of actively publishing climate scientists agree on human- caused climate change. For example, the Union of Concerned Scientists says increased carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas acts like a blanket warming our world. GlobalChange. gov, made up of 13 govern- ment agencies including the Department of Defense, reports Earth9s climate is <changing faster than at any point in the history of mod- ern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities.= The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says <reducing greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors is essential if global warming is to be kept to well below 2 degrees C, if not 1.5 degrees C.= These are only a few of the reputable scientific bod- ies showing consensus on cli- mate change. Leading CEOs are work- ing with their industry peers and the government to advo- cate for smart environmental policies. You may remem- ber when the U.S. withdrew from the Paris Agreement, more than 1,000 companies voiced their disagreement, stating they had no intention of moving backwards. Com- panies like Facebook, Gap and Johnson & Johnson said they remained committed to working toward a sustain- able carbon-neutral economy. Obviously, these leaders don9t view climate work as a job-killer or anti-Western. They recognize that extreme weather events wreak havoc on our economy and that cut- ting emissions often results in cost savings. These businesses prove it9s possible to prosper and create jobs while reducing GHG emissions. However, the main contributors of car- bon emissions 4 the fossil fuel industry 4 are not step- ping up. Switching to paper straws will accomplish next to nothing. We need the big- gest polluters to act like their more innovative peers to reduce their carbon footprint, too. The triple bottom line 4 people, profit, planet 4 ben- efits all Americans. Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.