Letter to the Editor: Climate is clearly changing

President Reagan understood the importance of greenhouse gas emissions and we should too.

The climate is clearly changing. Reagan was so concerned about greenhouse gas emissions that he directed the EPA to create an international group of scientists and governments to evaluate and make recommendations about greenhouse gas emissions. This is how Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change came to be.

The IPCC has the responsibility of producing reports that the scientists and the member governments have all agreed to. The most recent report was published in March. If you want to read the report, search “IPCC.”

No one knows for sure what’s going to happen in the future, but the report makes clear that we have never had more information about the gravity of the climate emergency – or what needs to be done to reduce increasing risks. Scientists are telling us that the weather patterns we’re seeing, hail, excessive heat, drought, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, are all related to the 1.1 degree of increased temperature the earth is experiencing. They are warning us that the increase in natural disasters will steadily increase if we don’t reduce our greenhouse gas emissions very soon.

This is why most Americans support rapidly reducing greenhouse gas pollution around the world. We need to build the political will to make the changes needed to stabilize our planet. There’s a side benefit too, all of us will be breathing cleaner air and our energy bills will be lower because we can produce it all right here in Nevada.

Sandra Koch

Carson City