Wants to reach Republicans

Editor, Gettysburg Times,

How can we help Republicans come to terms with the reality of human-caused climate change? If we could reach one in five of those voters and officials identifying as Republican we might well be able to create a durable majority in favor of the action we will need to take in order to get through the difficult years ahead. We might then be able to rebalance things a bit and find a way to contend with the climate instability that 200 years of burning fossil fuels has created.

This would not mean “Democrats in charge of everything” as a letter by William D. Hewitt in the Gettysburg Times on Thursday, August 10 seemed to suggest. Republicans and Democrats would continue to disagree on many issues. Sometimes Democrats would carry the day, sometimes Republicans would. What it would mean is that a significant number of Republican voters, representatives and officials have come to understand that climate change is quite real and presents an existential threat to all of us.

Global warming can at first sound kind of attractive, at least to those who have not lived through a persistent heat event. But the situation we are faced with is more complicated than simple warming. We are really talking about climate instability which means increased heat, drought, and wildfires but also melting glaciers, rising seas and floods in unexpected places. The key word is instability, and it’s the disappearance of the sweet spot in terms of a dependable climate that our species has enjoyed for the last ten thousand years or so that really matters.

This year so far has been the hottest year in human history, and the effects of climate change have been breaking out all over the planet. Earlier this summer we all got to smell it in the smoke drifting down from uncontrollable wildfires in Canada. But climate change is a problem we know how to solve. We have the tools we need. And, if we are able to face up to this challenge together and apply some of the American ingenuity, we used to be famous for, I know we can get the job done!

Will Lane
Gettysburg