Just want to say how much I enjoy Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen’s weekly columns, even when he’s writing about bad news, as he noted in his March 25 column, “Sunday Funday at Red Rock Pools Ends in Heartbreaking Tragedy.”
I appreciate his sensitivity and insights, but the “Easter eggs” he includes are always entertaining. This week’s “significance of the passage of time” was pure gold. Thank you.
Kim Evans
Santa Barbara
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Thanks to Robert Sulnick for a sobering assessment of the climate crisis in his March 22 commentary, “‘Look Up’ Before Climate Change Overwhelms Humanity.”
Scientists have warned us that global warming presents us with a time problem. If we don’t stop burning coal, oil and natural gas soon, like in as little as eight years, the impacts of rising sea levels, heat waves, wildfires, drought, floods and extreme weather events become irreversible.
While it is important to look for ways that oceans and forests can help us capture carbon pollution, what’s needed most urgently is to stop using these life-destroying fuels. We must stop subsidizing them, stop exploring for more, stop building the infrastructure of fossil fuel-powered plants, pipelines and terminals.
Instead, let’s double down on the transition to clean energy. After all, the sun and the wind offer us power for free, no nation controls these fuels, and without their pollution we’d all be healthier. The technology is available; we must pressure our elected officials to act.
We can begin by passing the climate provisions in the “Build Back Better” bill and include in that legislation policies that make the polluting industry pay an increasing fee on their carbon pollution. No other action can achieve the goal of reducing emissions in half by 2030.
Bob Taylor
Montecito
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Regarding the March 8 article, “Santa Barbara County Supervisors Deny ExxonMobil Oil Trucking Proposal in Split Vote,” I’m grateful to our Board of Supervisors for rejecting ExxonMobil’s proposal to add up to 24,800 oil-filled trucks per year onto a coastal highway and a winding two-lane road. It’s easy to imagine a crash with an oil truck or another devastating spill along this route.
Also, ExxonMobil has a terrible reputation. After the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, the company battled local residents for 20 years before being forced to issue payments.
Recently, ExxonMobil locked out 650 union employees from a Texas facility for 10 months until they either agreed to a weakened contract or decertified the union.
ExxonMobil violated sanctions against Russia relating to the 2014 invasion of Crimea; ExxonMobil was later fined by the Treasury Department while Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded CEO Rex Tillerson.
ExxonMobil knew for decades that its activities cause climate change. Instead of mitigating its climate impact, it spread misinformation to protect its public image.
This project would have made no difference to rising gas prices. It’s unlikely the oil would have been sold locally, and it would only have produced 0.06% of the United States’ daily oil consumption.
Santa Barbara has faced enough damage because of the oil industry. Thank you, Supervisors Joan Hartmann, Das Williams and Gregg Hart, for denying ExxonMobil’s reckless proposal.
Nadia Lee Abushanab
SBCAN advocacy and events director
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