Stop the destruction

How can The Spokesman-Review speak in favor of North America’s two most destructive environmental disasters: the shipping of massive amounts of Wyoming coal to China straight through downtown Spokane and the accelerated use of Alberta’s extremely polluting tar sands?

It’s time to get past this denial of the unfolding climate mess. All major scientific academies agree we are responsible for climate change, as do 98 percent of publishing climatologists. Senior climatologists such as NASA’s James Hansen tell us “it’s game over for the world climate” if coal companies begin huge trans-shipments to China through two mammoth new Washington coal ports, or if oil companies build the Keystone XL pipeline to hyper-speed the use of dirty Canadian tar sands, the carbon footprint of which is 80 percent worse than from conventional oil.

Are we listening? Can Spokane boast of being “near nature” while applauding its vast destruction?

It is now clear that destroying the climate will cost millions of lives and trillions of dollars, yet saving it will cost almost nothing if we act soon.

The first step is to stop making the problem far worse. That means stopping the new Washington coal superports and the Keystone XL pipeline. Period.

David Camp

Spokane