Letters to the Editor: Parents, you must scream as loudly as your kids on climate change

To the editor: Sometimes I think that my cherished childhood memories — memories rich with innocence and belief in an everlasting story of humanity and the vast, green earth — are so idealized that they couldn’t possibly have been real. Did I make it all up? It’s not that terribly long ago. (“For a generation born into climate change, hope isn’t an option. Activism is,” Opinion, Sept. 21)

I read Ranger Rick and National Geographic, those great protectors of cultures, forests and animals. They were looking after the whole glittering proposition for us.

Now, my memories are riven, first by stomach-churning guilt, and then by a searing, guttural sound that no one hears. Sometimes people look up briefly, hear something, and then put their heads back down.

We’re all screaming — for our children to be able to have a future undarkened by the chaotic forces now unleashed by climate change. All people who love a younger person or the experience of unspoiled nature are screaming. Parents over the vast, green earth are screaming for their children.

Mine are 22 and 24 now. Scream louder. Scream longer.

Pamela Ludwig Dreyfuss, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I agree with op-ed writer Daniel Propp’s thoughts on hope as well as his belief that for young people like him, activism on climate change is crucial. I also believe that all of us, young and old, should share this responsibility.

I am a grandfather. When it comes to reducing the effects of climate change, I have no use for hope. I don’t need it because I will always fight on behalf of my offspring.

What, I’m going to let absence of one feeling get in the way of doing that? Love is all I need, and there is plenty of that in almost all of us to act on climate change, regardless of our own age.

Chris Hilger, Fountain Valley

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To the editor: The time to act is today, because if we don’t, years from now the best farmland will be right smack in the middle of all the major cities of the world.

I envision corn and soybeans growing on ripped-up Broadway and Main Street, shaded from the unforgiving sun by countless skyscrapers built long ago.

Let’s not go there, people.

Joe Kevany, Mount Washington