You can ignore Greta Thunberg, but not Mother Nature

Oct. 19 — To the Editor:

Folks can continue to disregard the pleadings of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg and the scientific community that she asks world leaders to listen to. The one woman that folks will not be able to disregard indefinitely is Mother Nature herself. She has repeatedly warned us with increasingly severe signals that we need to start treating her better.

The challenges are daunting and it is often easier to be distracted by the Internet click bait issues of the day. We can understand that many people die when trapped in closed vehicles due to the greenhouse effect, but fail to realize that carbon dioxide and methane are acting like a closed window encapsulating Earth affecting billions. We can understand that our car radiator needs an expansion tank because hot water expands, but some don’t seem to accept that vast warming oceans also expand and raise sea levels. We can understand that stomach (hydrochloric) acid reacts with calcium carbonate antacids, but not that ocean acidification due to absorbed carbon dioxide (carbonic acid) will dissolve the calcium carbonate in the shells of marine life at the base of the food chain. We can understand that vaping can harm the lungs of our fellow Americans, while minimizing that the Earth’s “lungs” (Amazon rainforest) are purposely set on fire in South America. We collectively cringe when a player is struck by a Major League fastball, but seem to ignore that thousands of icy fast balls, know as hail, can be pitched by Mother Nature in one thunderstorm. Her arm never gets tired.

Sure, we can disregard Greta Thunberg as she advocates for our environment and our children’s future, but know that Mother Nature will keep warning us with increasingly severe signals until we finally begin to address climate change. Please start listening to Mother Nature today.

Don Cavallaro

Rye