Empathy should guide us to reduce carbon

We have the privilege of reading another of Eugene Robinson’s columns, “Dial up the urgency on climate crisis,” Nov. 4. He opens with a startling quote by U.N. Secretary-general Antonio Guterres, who is pressing for worldwide decarbonization, a vital concept that has huge obstacles.

Our destabilized climate has been a major problem this year, and this trend will not only continue but will worsen until we decarbonize. One path to reduce these greenhouse gases is based on sincere empathy. We all need to have empathy for the lives and livelihoods lost in this year’s fires, floods, hurricanes and heat waves. We need to reflect on the extreme horror and suffering of the people in the affected regions that Robinson describes.

That empathy and reflection need to translate into climate mitigation because we have no choice. Plans set forth by President Joe Biden are a good start, but 52 senators are deaf to the sounds of a dangerously unstable climate. These elected officials choose to continue with the old carbonburning model of development.

One wonders if any of these climate change deniers have doubts about the positions they've chosen. Do they have an ounce of empathy for victims of our climate crisis? More importantly, will this empathy grow into a movement to decarbonize? Time is running out.

Robinson's final paragraphs are moving as he describes a world overwhelmed

by an angry climate. He speaks of regret for “willful ignorance.” When will robust decarbonization become a way of life for all of us? Sally Courtright

Loudonville