| YOUR VOICE Letters to the Editor
Why wait on lower Kings Road limit? So now the Schenectady City Council has to wait for a state engineer to study whether lowering the speed limit on Kings Road is justified. Why not just lower it now to 25 mph and then see what the engineer says. Talk about incompetence. What happens if someone is injured or killed because the City Council cannot decide? This is what turns people off about government — the lack of compassionate caring for everyone. JAMES LECHOWICZ Schenectady Elect people who will act on climate Really? Does anyone honestly still believe that human-caused climate change is a hoax? With temperatures reaching 116 degrees F in Texas, the highest global average temperature recorded in June; with half the United States and Canada shrouded in dense smoke from the Canadian forest fires; and with carbon dioxide levels at 417.06 ppm, when anything above 350 ppm was considered the highest we could go without triggering serious climate change, considering this a hoax is untenable. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projections of the rate of climate change are falling short of the rapidity which they have been predicting. Why? They can predict the amount of human-caused CO2 entering the atmosphere and what the result will be, but not the feedback mechanisms this triggers. For instance, how can they predict the number of forest fires and their severity, which send an additional amount of CO2 into the atmosphere? And how much particulate matter will then fall on the Arctic ice, making it darker, causing the ice to melt, instead of reflecting the heat back into the atmosphere, thus opening up more dark sea and land area to absorb more heat. Feedback mechanisms like these are speeding up climate change unpredictably. While we can help at home by using LEDs, turning the heat down and the AC up, and driving electric or hybrid vehicles, our best bet to save ourselves and our planet is to vote in people who will actually do something to curb the use of fossil fuels and plastics. Otherwise, our grandchildren’s future is grim. JAHNN SWANKER-GIBSON Johnstown Thanks to Scotia crews for response Thanks to the Scotia DPW for their prompt responses to two recent incidents at my home. Upon returning from vacation last week, I unfortunately found a sewage backup in my cellar. After calling Schenectady County dispatch, within minutes, Scotia Public Works arrived and flushed the manholes up and down the street. Although the cellar cleanup was kind of gross, everything is good now. After a recent heavy rain overnight, a large tree limb fell onto the street in front of my house the next morning, blocking the street. I again called county dispatch. Scotia police and public works crews arrived shortly thereafter. They sawed up the limb and swept the area and were gone. All this in less than an hour. Thank heavens this occurred during a summer morning when no children were walking to school and no cars were parked along the street. Great work everyone! DAVID BRADLEY Scotia Beware of ‘Well’ at start of sentences Here’s a bit of wisdom that I got from my father. Whenever somebody uses the word “Well” to start a sentence, you can be sure it will be followed by a lie or an equivocation. The only exceptions involve water. JOHN ROBITZEK Esperance Letters Regular letters must be no longer than 250 words. Letters related to elections are limited to 200 words. For where to send letters, see the bottom of this page. | |