Letter to the editor: We can’t afford to ignore the looming climate catastrophe

By Maureen McCue

As my husband and I wait, watch and hope our garden and late summer beans, squash and raspberries will survive and mature despite Iowa’s unprecedented rains, the latest IPCC report has been released. As Floridians await Hurricane Michael’s devastation and the people in North and South Carolina struggle to recover from Florence, we learn the world will quickly pass 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming and will rapidly rise to unlivable dimensions. And yet, we hear no calls from our leaders to do anything to avert looming catastrophe. As sea levels rise, catastrophic weather, fires and floods intensify, we learn of more efforts to extract gas and petroleum products, and to turn back vehicle mileage standards.

Already, even before we’ve reached 1.5 degrees, we see the impacts of the climate crisis unfolding all around us. How much longer can humanity afford to ignore reality? How many more disasters can governors declare, how many more clean-ups can we afford, how many more homes and lives do we want to lose before we say enough? We lose a future by ignoring its reality today. Now is the time to say enough. The time for all of us to begin the urgent and difficult work of restoring our climate, environment and future is now.