Letter: Story shows importance of fighting climate change

I just came across a June 17 Daily Herald article by Jenny Whidden, "Most suburban residents believe climate change is happening." Using the Yale Climate Opinion Map, she reports results for each northeastern Illinois county.

Fascinating findings. I hope everyone will read her article online. Click on "Show Photos" to see graphs by county.

It is heartening to find that most Illinoisans accept what all climate scientists currently publishing in refereed journals agree is true: the earth's temperature is rapidly increasing due to burning fossil fuels.

The temperature increase may seem slow, but Earth's temperature has increased as much in the last one hundred years as normally would occur in one million years. The last time warming occurred this fast, it caused the earth's greatest mass extinction, far greater than the extinction annihilating dinosaurs.

Scientists have known for almost two centuries that increases in carbon in the atmosphere causes increases in temperature. They now have detailed data linking humans' use of fossil fuels to today's soaring temperatures.

Therefore, if we wish to survive and thrive, we must join other nations in quickly slashing our use of coal, oil and gas.

Through the presidency of George H.W. Bush, Republicans were leaders in fighting climate change. Our two most significant climate laws were passed under Nixon and H.W. It was only in 2000, when Republicans started using climate change as a political wedge issue, that they shifted to denial.

Today, no candidate should be elected who does not assert that the rapid climate heating is caused by burning fossil fuels and does not support major expenditures to slash their use.

Any candidate unwilling to unambiguously agree is putting politics over people and must be defeated.

Darold Barnum

Oak Park