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Sue and John Sorensen: Climate chaos demands our urgent response

A recent Sierra Sun article, “’It’s exactly the same’: Truckee official talks about fire danger locals face,” stated that we in the North Tahoe region have the same severe risk as those in the paths of the Dixie and Caldor wildfires, living in essentially similar terrain and forest lands. We must be fully aware of this danger and prepared to react when such a fire happens here, as it surely will. But we were dismayed that nowhere in the article was there any mention of global warming and resulting climate chaos that accentuates these fires. Heat spells, droughts, and wild fires in the western states will continue to be longer, hotter, and more intense with each passing year. The cause, of course, is our continued burning of fossil fuels, creating ever-more green-house gases that trap excess heat in our atmosphere.

We Californians should be leading America in combating this threat. That means doing our part both nationally and locally. We must insist that our national legislators support the currently developing reconciliation bill that includes climate mitigation measures. This bill needs to put a growing fee on carbon fuels to spur a shift to clean, renewable energy sources. Subsidies to fossil fuel companies must cease. We must demand climate action.

Locally, we need to support adaptation funding such as Measure T that addresses added forest cleanup and defensible space. We must commit to transitioning to electric water and space heating, and to all-electric cars. The climate threat is not someone else’s problem. It needs the sense of high urgency in our local communications and actions, too. We do this for our grandchildren and all life. What could be more important?



Sue and John Sorensen

Concerned Truckee grandparents




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