Climate Change

Dear Editor,
I am neither a weather, climate or even science student but I do listen to those who are. We made the climate mess we find ourselves in so we will have to find our own way out.  We made it this way by our short sighted over-consumption of resources - Oil, Coal, Forests, and Grasslands.  We need to put those natural “resources” all on the “Endangered Species List.”  We should “thin” ALL forests so they can better withstand our new hot, dry climate.  For oil and coal the only way available Is a “Manhattan Project” level of scientific intervention.
The “Dust Bowl”  of the thirties was initiated by farmers “turning over” (plowing up) sod during a “dry spell” in a large area not amenable to that kind of treatment.  Subsequently, the grass roots dried and died.  The hot, dry wind common to the great plains generated dust clouds of memorable size.
That degraded environment made it difficult for the prairie to regenerate.  The worse it got the worse it got.   Farming was next to impossible.  Growing a crop yielding profit or protein  was a difficult proposition at best and it still is.  Natural, early humans were primarily plant eaters.  It wasn’t until John Wayne made his debut that protein from beef became a primary food as well as an important source  of greenhouse gases.
Taken altogether we have a choice to make - change our ways or take the consequences.  Speaking of which:  There is an occasional inhabitant in The District of Columbia whose every action contributes to “consequences”  unwelcome to human beings.  Besides discomforting human beings  there is a million species of life whose very existence depends on maintaining or returning the climate back to normal.
Jerry Baird