Climate change's role

Hurricane Harvey is still destroying whole communities around Houston, Texas, and east from there. Thousands of people are stranded in their homes by the flooding. Brave, unselfish Americans are using their own boats for rescue operations. This is our American Dunkirk.

I hope that all Americans, and especially those in power, recognize that this "natural" disaster is a result of climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels. How ironic that this historically worst storm is occurring around Houston, Texas, the fourth largest city in the United States. Houston is also a worldwide hub of the production, refining and distribution of the very fossil fuels whose use has contributed to Hurricane Harvey and its devastation.

We need leadership at the local, state, and national level to reduce the use of fossil fuels and the resulting steady rise in world temperatures. If we ignore this threat, we will have destroyed our world and its civilization to enrich those who have tied their fates to this use of fossil fuels.

Karen Wagner

Rolling Meadows