What kind of air will our grandchildren breathe?

The president recently directed the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the emission of carbon dioxide into the air we inhale. There was an immediate negative response from commentators and politicians mostly on Fox TV. Most prefaced their comments with, "I am not a scientist however ..."

I find it most ironic that on June 1, that same Fox TV network presented a program called "Cosmos" A Spacetime Odyssey" offering a one-hour explanation of the presence of CO2 into world's breathing air. The moderator of the series has been Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist - also known as a scientist!

My wife and I found the series brilliant. We watched the entire thing, and I consider this series one of the most interesting and informative programs I've seen on TV. In the CO2 program Tyson demonstrates in the most simple terms how the Earth inhales CO2 and exhales oxygen. Tyson also explains the possible and probable result of the Earth's inability to inhale CO2 in the future.

The series started with an explanation of the Big Bang Theory and continued up to our present time. Throughout the series Tyson demonstrated all the many events necessary to make our existence possible. He didn't comment on it, but as I watched the series and all the evolving events over billions of years (some catastrophic) that were necessary to make life as we know it, I had to believe there was divine intervention.

And having watched the CO2 program, I am glad I am turning 80 this year. Depending on one's age, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be far less concerned about national debt and more concerned about their environment and what we left them.

Tom McGovern

Mount Prospect