How can we not insure against climate disaster?

None of the recent letters to the Herald on global warming have asked the important questions. Is it possible that mankind is having an impact on global warming that will make the earth uninhabitable? If it is possible, how can we justify not doing anything about it? How many things are more important than the future of life on earth?

Here's something I would like to ask global-warming deniers - do you own insurance? Car insurance, health insurance, home insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, maybe insurance for a major purchase?

If the answer is yes, that means you are willing to pay money, probably a significant amount of money, to protect yourself from catastrophe.

You don't know if that catastrophe will ever happen, but it might. The odds are high that your premiums will exceed your claims. After all, that's what feeds the insurance industry.

So how do you reconcile taking a voluntary hit to your wallet to protect yourself from risk, but not being willing to make a sacrifice to protect the entire planet?

If your answer is that there is nothing to worry about, then I'm sorry, but you don't know that. Not for certain. Nobody does.

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are at record highs and carbon dioxide contributes to global warming. Polar icecaps are shrinking, glaciers are retreating, ocean temperatures are rising. These are facts, not speculation, not some esoteric modeling.

A huge majority of scientific experts are telling us that we are at risk and that we can take steps to mitigate that risk. I trust them a lot more than the minority of politicians, none of them experts, who say otherwise. Trusting scientists over politicians on a science question - why is this so hard? Sometimes I wonder why mankind is not extinct already.

Bill Myers

Buffalo Grove