Creating functional reform measures best for climate

In her recent Marin Voice commentary, 16-year-old Sarah Goody underscored the severity of our environmental crisis from the perspective of the younger generations who must suffer most from its effects (“Young volunteers have role to play in enacting climate action plans,” March 19).

Goody aptly encourages both generations to pursue functional environmental-reform measures. She attributes much blame for warming — and the declining habitability of our planet — on the neglect and complacency of the current and recent generations, which allowed this degradation to progress nearly unabated. Meanwhile we poison our atmosphere with greenhouse gasses which melt the permafrost and sea ice, thus self-perpetuating and accelerating the releases of carbon dioxide.

Unlike other global catastrophes, such as wars and epidemics (which eventually end); climate change and related starvation and conflicts can only worsen unless the world populations can mobilize and nullify these strangleholds that special interests have on our leaders — and then forge functional reform measures; which they have thus far failed to achieve.

We can’t change history now, but we can benefit from it. If former President Jimmy Carter’s far-sighted environmental reforms had not been blocked by special interests 40 years ago, many of them would now be operational, and our planet’s habitability and future outlook would be far brighter.

— Robert Settgast, San Rafael