Our hope is in listening to the scientists

I'm not the kind of guy that normally writes a letter to the editor. Heck, I normally don't" write emails either. I'm 69 years old and for most of that time, I've been more of a "if I don't see you, I don't need to talk to you." But times have changed.

I've seen every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower. There's been wars, the Cold War, floods, droughts, earthquakes, epidemics, social movements, even an erupting volcano, and the whole time I've pretty much just stayed quiet and isolated myself in a reasonably comfortable middle class life. Now COVID-19. Pretty scary. Makes you think and take a measure of what's really important. Though the current pandemic is horrible, it really demonstrates just how woefully unprepared we are for the future.

From now on we must allow science to guide our path. In all areas of life, we need to fund and listen to the scientists if we are to have any hope of maintaining a stable society.

COVID-19 is bad, but not as bad as it could have been. Hopefully in a few weeks we'll be back to some form of normalcy. Bet we cannot ever go back to where we were.

There will be more pandemics and we need to be ready for them, but the hard challenge is climate change. If we do not prepare ourselves, it will be far more disruptive to society on all levels. Wild habitat is still being destroyed at a rapid pace, species disappearing, coral dying, many fish stocks crashing. I could go, on but I hope my message is clear.

We need a drastic redesign of the global economy to have a hope of survival. And listen to the scientists.

Harold Worby

Wheaton