CLIMATE: Avoid the politics

In response to Walter Wilson Jr.’s criticism of Press columnists’ denial of global warming, I seriously doubt that weather gurus Cliff Harris or Randy Mann are trying to pull political punches. However, it’s a shame that something as critical to mankind as climate change has become so politicized.

Politicizing the issue stymies constructive action. Forget about the politics, or for that matter the true causes (man and/or natural oscillations), and let’s agree that climate change is happening! Go look at historical photos of our area at the North Idaho Museum and note the past frequency of great snows and how often Coeur d’Alene Lake (not Lake Coeur d’Alene!) used to freeze over regularly a generation or so ago. When was the last time that happened? When I was a kid in this town in the ’60s and ’70s, it used to actually rain once in awhile in July and August. Imagine that!

Nearly every August now we have choking fires all around us. Remember when we used to complain about the farmers burning their fields each August with the “Save Our Summers” mantra? Farmers don’t burn their fields anymore, but we are smokier than ever each August.

So what do we do now to save our summers? Yes, climate change has happened and I doubt we can realistically stop it. It threatens tourism and our quality of life. Rather than political fighting, we can take constructive measures to better mitigate our shifting climate. Let’s pull together and put our shoulders into constructive actions such as strengthening the Fire Smart Program, beef up fire prevention efforts (remember the old Shovel, Axe and Bucket Program?), and most importantly, it’s time to put more focus and caution on land-use planning and growth buffers in our vulnerable wildland-urban interface areas so that we don’t become the next Redding, Calif.

JON INGALLS

Coeur d’Alene