Perilous to ignore

In Anthony J. Sadar's recent Perspectives piece, "Weird Weather, Weird Science" (March 17), he presents a skewed perspective on how we should react to climate change, stating that we must protect interests of "the truly indigent of the world" by not investing money in understanding the climate problem -- a "supposed meteorological mayhem."

As a meteorologist, Mr. Sadar is used to evaluating short-term patterns, saying that the climate is naturally "quite tolerable" but "not everywhere and not at all times." This is fine -- but what should we do about long-term changes that have real impacts today? Humans and wildlife rely on our natural systems and cannot "tolerate" the rate of change in many cases.

Abuse and neglect of our natural systems is visible today at a rampant scale. Pennsylvania's forestry, farming and outdoor recreation industries are threatened and already impacted by climate-based changes to ecosystems. In this awkward trade between ecological services and money, we are finding that we must understand our environment to protect our economy as well. Can we really afford to ignore our effects any longer?

We need serious solutions like Sens. Maria Cantwell and Susan Collins' CLEAR Act, a climate and green jobs bill that has been endorsed by the The Economist as "refreshingly simple." It caps carbon and gives every American cash back to pay for energy costs. Urge your senators to support this swift action on climate and energy policy. Let's make our economy and environment more than just "tolerable."

ADAM PECHARKA

Bloomfield