Letters to the editor
Limit companies that overconsume resources
Re: “New version of housing bill still stirs controversy” (Page A1, Dec. 4):
Like deer overpopulating an island devoid of predators, the Bay Area has become a tech island that is in environmental disarray, and state Sen. Scott Wiener’s bill will make the imbalance worse.
The problem here is local and state governments that have given zoning preference to the proliferation of high-paying tech companies, leading to massive imbalances in the human ecosystem we call our cities.
These companies overconsume the resources — they overcrowd housing, parking, roadways and schools, add more pollution and decrease quality of life. Wiener’s bill feeds these overconsumers housing, allowing their growth and ignoring the increasing dysfunction of the entire system.
We need a plan to return balance to our ecosystem by limiting the growth of these giant consumers in our cities.
When one species overpopulates an environment, natural checks and balances rectify the situation: starvation, increase in predators, etc. For human ecosystems, humans need to restore the balance, not feed the problem. — Tina Peak, Palo Alto
Reducing emissions shouldn’t be controversial
Re: “Global carbon pollution up 2.7 percent in 2018” (Page A4, Dec. 6):
I want to add to the information provided in the letters by Mr. Danz (“Climate act creates 2.1M jobs over the next 10 years”) and Mr. Muscatine (“Proud of my generation acting on climate change”) printed Dec. 6 in the Mercury News.
World carbon dioxide emissions took the largest jump in seven years. With the certainty that climate change is already a very serious problem getting worse all the time, effective policy to reduce carbon emissions should not be controversial. HAVE YOUR SAY Letters to the editor: Commentaries:
We know climate is changing dramatically from carbon in the atmosphere. Renewable technologies have matured enough so that they are already cost competitive with fossil fuels. However, renewables are still limited in their use because of powerful special interests. I urge my representative Anna Eshoo and Sens. Feinstein and Harris to support the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. It’s time to set aside partisan differences and start adequately addressing climate change.
— Robert Hogue, Menlo Park
Cities, county must save the land that sustains us
American Farmland Trust commends the Mercury News on its Dec. 5 editorial, “Why LAFCO should reject Morgan Hill land-use proposal,” which daylighted the city of Morgan Hill’s third attempt to expand its Urban Service Area into the southeast quadrant of Santa Clara County.
If approved, this proposal would have impacted agricultural conservation goals and undermined efforts made by the county to promote agricultural conservation through its Agricultural Plan — a regional effort to conserve the Santa Clara Valley’s farmland and ranchland as an innovative climate change mitigation and economic development strategy.
The Santa Clara Local Agency Formation Commission proved why it earned the 2018 CALAFCO most effective commission achievement award by voting down the city’s proposal by a 4-3 vote on Dec. 5. AFT encourages the cities and county to take the next step and put resources to work to implement the goals of the Agricultural Plan to save the land that sustains us. — Katie Patterson, California policy manager, American Farmland Trust
Pizarro pours himself into the community he loves
There are journalists who write about our community, and there are journalists who are also embedded in our community. Mercury News columnist Sal Pizarro has always been embedded — part of the fabric — of our community. For five years, Sal not only participates in our Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot, created by our Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation, he arrives pre-dawn to judge our Mercury News/Alaska Airlines costume competition.
He doesn’t write about the competition, or his role in making it happen, in his column. He simply does the work, year after year, to add a wonderful, quirky element to our race.
When we created the Turkey Trot in 2005, our twin goal was simple: Build community; help needy families. That mission is made possible by leaders like Sal Pizarro, pouring himself into a community that he not only covers as a journalist but truly loves as a citizen.
— Carl Guardino, CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership
Group and Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation
Remembrances of Bush contrast with Trump
Re: “We are far from the nation George H.W. Bush wanted” (Opinion section, Dec. 6):
As the world watched the remembrances of former President George Herbert Walker Bush, the contrasts to the current occupant were more than evident without any commentary from the press or anyone else.
Marc Thiessen chose to take on those who criticize the current president’s behavior, but wrote not a word about the president himself.
— Tom Scott, Morgan Hill