America absolutely needs more conversations on climate

I was intrigued by the plea from letter writer Cheryl Arney who asked The Baltimore Sun’s readers to have climate conversations and summarize them in letters of their own (“Your Earth Day assignment: Talk about climate change,” April 19).

I actually had a brief conversation a week ago with a stranger at a college event that was related to climate. We briefly discussed public opinion on climate change. He then spoke intensely, saying we will need to “get money out of politics if we want any progress on climate solutions because the fossil fuels industry has too much cash to inject into politics.”

I replied that this is an issue, but then I said “we should probably work on both issues at the same time, because we can’t wait until our election funding problems are solved to address climate change.” He replied, “OK, yes, we can work on both things.”

This conversation, which did not really reach full agreement, was interesting to me and keeps returning to my memory. I learned that addressing climate change is not just a matter of dealing with the few people who don’t think it is real.

There are also many people who are concerned about it who debate the right ways to fight the problem and which thing to do first.

I also learned that some people who desire climate solutions have become angry and upset because of the decades we have spent doing very little about the problem. The people who think it is fake must also be angry and upset because they can’t see why the rest of us are concerned about it.

I was left feeling that many millions of climate conversations will need to happen and that it will be important for these conversations to be respectful and caring.