Letters: Firefighting ability | Removing CO2 | Challenge accepted | Making history
Mercury News Letters to the Editor for July 31, 2024
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State must build upfirefighting ability
As wildfires become an increasingly regular threat in California, it’s clear we need to enhance our firefighting capabilities. Currently, California relies on aging aircraft and ad-hoc contracts for aerial support, leaving us vulnerable during peak fire season.
Aerial firefighting is crucial for rapid response. Large tanker planes, capable of dropping thousands of gallons of water or retardant, can effectively contain fires before they spread. Investing in a dedicated fleet of modern tanker planes or long-term contracts with aircraft providers is essential.
While costly, this investment is far less than the economic and human toll of uncontrolled wildfires. Billions are spent annually on firefighting, rebuilding and addressing health impacts. Every Californian is affected, with many facing skyrocketing insurance premiums or being unable to obtain insurance at all. Proactive wildfire management is urgently needed.
Andrew RatermannSanta Clara
Just cutting emissionswon’t get job done
Re: “Research seeks a breath of fresh air” (Page E1, July 28).
Kudos for publishing Lisa Krieger’s interview with Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson in connection with his new book, “Into the Clear Blue Sky.”
Jackson said, “To limit the crisis, it’s not enough to stabilize the Earth’s temperature by merely cutting emissions … we also need to restore the atmosphere, removing greenhouse gases.”
There is so much to unpack in the one quote. First, he is not alone — the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (thousands of scientists) states that humanity needs to be removing 5 billion to 10 billion tons of CO2 every year by 2050, in addition to rapidly reducing emissions. Second, “restore the atmosphere” is much more inspiring than “avoid the worst outcomes.” Third, scaling up our capacity to remove greenhouse gases is a huge economic opportunity, especially here in the Bay Area where we have many startups working on carbon removal.
Thank you for helping to raise awareness.
Karl DanzLos Altos
Grand jury report’schallenge accepted
Re: “District board slams civil grand jury” (Page B1, July 26).
While it’s hard to summarize a more than five-hour meeting, your reporting fell short .
What wasn’t reported: The parts of the civil grand jury report not accepted were addressed and context was provided as to why.
During my interview with the county grand jury, I was asked leading questions to support pre-determined conclusions. When I disagreed, it was portrayed as being out of touch.
I also acknowledged there were nuggets of truth and that we must rise to the challenge and work collaboratively to improve. I know that San Jose Unifed School District can and must do better, particularly regarding safety, communication and community engagement.
The report, however flawed, can be reframed as an opportunity to do better. I stand with our students, families, staff and residents when I say: challenge accepted. All our children deserve safe, high-quality public education. We must accept nothing less.
Carla CollinsSJUSD Trustee Area 3San Jose
Hoping election sendsTrump to history books
Why do I have trouble saying, “Crooked Trump, lock him up”?
This guy won the election against Hillary Clinton by getting his supporters to chant, “Crooked Hillary, lock her up.” To my knowledge, Hillary was never charged, tried or found guilty of a crime. Then when Joe Biden became an opponent, it was the “Biden crime family.” Even now I get emails from Trump every day saying crooked this or crooked that.
Trump has been charged and found guilty of crimes, as have many of his close supporters. Most people didn’t see the events of Jan 6, 2021, live. They saw the news reports. In this modern world sorting out the facts isn’t easy. I hope and pray God helps their most avid supporters see that Trump is not their guy. I hope and pray that the November election will move Mr. Trump to the history books, seldom to be seen or heard again.
Jonathan BarnesSan Jose