Letter: Wildfires tell us climate action is needed now

An "out-of-control, zero-percent-contained" wildfire is burning near Yosemite National Park. Maybe it's easy to get numb to news like this among the many other disturbing stories in the media each day.

And so far, we have been able to ultimately contain terrible wildfires like this in the American West, albeit with dreadful costs. But what will happen when we someday get one that is beyond our power to tame? Will it still be OK to shrug off climate change as something bad that happens "elsewhere" and "someday?" But "elsewhere" and "someday" are getting nearer.

Climate change devastation is real and concrete to regular folks here and now. While visiting our son in northern California recently, my husband and I met a local woman who had lost her home and everything else in the Carr Fire of 2018. While she was lucky to be able to move in with her daughter afterward, she has still not been able to recover financially enough to live on her own.

This poor woman is just one person among the countless victims of climate disasters. What will it take to get Congress to act on climate? We owe it to our own citizens and the rest of the world to fulfill our country's promise to lower carbon emissions. Please be part of that promise and contact Senators Duckworth and Durbin and your congressman to tell them we need action now.

Karen Campbell

Bolingbrook