M L Berg, Minot

In the middle of 2024, Senator Hoeven spoke out against ‘radical environmentalism.’

Earlier that year, former Governor Burgum, in a televised interview in connection with a conference, referred to the topic of climate change, as, in effect, a fad.

We know climate change is, in fact, not a fad, but a function of physical and chemical processes in nature intensified by the release of tremendous volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere due to human activity.

As for Senator Hoeven’s ‘radical environmentalism,’ it should be remembered that there was unfettered, uncontrolled carbon dioxide pollution of the earth’s atmosphere for centuries, once the Industrial Revolution had gathered steam.

To counteract such wanton pollution, ‘radical environmentalism’ might just be what the doctor ordered. So, I see it in a positive light.

The current global warming predicament that rampant fossil fuel use has placed us in is already leading to severe consequences. There are more severe cyclones and rising seas wreaking havoc in the country of Bangladesh at the north end of the Bay of Bengal in South Asia.

Several Pacific Island nations are experiencing rising sea levels, and some of these island nations may be in danger of disappearing under the waves. One such Pacific Island nation is Tuvalu. It lies north of New Zealand and east of Australia in the Western Pacific. Tuvalu has already seen the ocean encroaching on its beaches, since its islands are low-lying coral ones. Some scientists predict Tuvalu might be completely covered by the Pacific Ocean in three or four decades, given current levels of sea level rise.

Pacific Island leaders point to global warming as the root cause of rising sea levels. It is also the root cause of many other extreme weather events occurring world-wide.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions will not put a stop to global warming, but it should slow it down. This is also one way of lending a helping hand to countries, such as Bangladesh and Tuvalu, that are most severely impacted by global warming. Doing so will benefit future generations of people everywhere.

We might think of reducing such emissions as ‘A Doubly Blessed’ form of ‘Paying It Forward,’ with both present and future benefits.

On an unrelated subject: It took a while, but the newly reconfigured Railway Avenue is quite a welcome addition to Northeast Minot. The vertical lights on the wall along the south side and the bright streetlights on the north side make for a most pleasant drive at night. It was a job well done.