Letters

I was dismayed by John Porta’s letter to the editor [“Doomsday Narrative,” Letters, September 14]. I don’t particularly appreciate being misquoted.

He needs to reread my letter before he writes another response. I would never call anyone a “quack”; that is not my words or style.

As for the scientists in his letter, I said that 97 percent of their peers don’t agree with them. They may be correct, but that is above my pay grade (maybe that’s clearer).

As for leaving the Paris Accords, that was a stupid move on Donald Trump’s part, and it undermined the world’s biggest problem, but it was good theater (he loves that, even if it was very destructive).

I should have mentioned in my previous letter that I built and own a 100-acre solar array on Long Island as an environmentalist and a businessman. We replace 38,000 tons of carbon from the atmosphere yearly. That is only a start.

John Porta is fixated on money and not saving our world. He talks about the cost of the components of going green being too costly. If people started to buy these products in great numbers, their prices would drop significantly. When you consider the savings, it’s positive at every level.

For those who can’t afford this expense, It’s a matter of bank and federal government financing. Financial institutions would open up a new profit center. People become self-sufficient. This energy would produce a better world for everyone.

I said in my last letter: Writing opposing letters doesn’t do anything. COVID-19 was a horrible experience for all of us. After all these years of neglect, we are now facing Mother Nature’s wrath. We wouldn’t be here now if we listened to President Jimmy Carter. He understood the problem.

I used to say I’m doing this for my grandkids; now I say, I’m doing this for my daughters. We should change course and stop listening to the naysayers.

The deniers are just putting their heads in the sand. There are things that we can’t control. But the human experience does not give up.

Gerald Rosengarten

Southampton