Dear Editor,

You’re walking down the street when you come upon a man lying before you bleeding profusely. You ask what happened and he says, “I’ve had an accident and I’ve cut myself, I fear I’m bleeding out!” Your response as you continue to stare down at the man is, “I see! You may or may not survive; it’s in God’s hands.”

Same scenario, second analogy! “I see! Let me try to stop the bleeding.”

In the 1860s, Colonel Drake discovered oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Prior to that, all countries lighted their homes with whale oil or animal fat. The world population was about a third of what it is today and there were no cars, trucks, or planes. Most ships moved by sail. Wood and coal were used for heat and energy but was still mined with pick and shovel.

One hundred and fifty years later, we are extracting record amounts of fossil fuels from the earth by massive machines and oil by hydrofracking at depths far greater than Colonel Drake could have imagined; all to provide energy for our economies and previously mentioned vehicles worldwide.

The changes we are seeing to our planet now, have in the past taken thousands of years, not hundreds; and not at the rapid acceleration of the past fifty years. Even the rapid change of the “ice age” was triggered by an event of “cause and effect!”

It is difficult to understand how so many can stand by and show so little concern for their children and grandchildren when it comes to this issue. And to my religious friends out there I would add, “don’t you believe (as do I) that this planet and your life upon it was a gift from God and should, therefore, be cherished?”

Allan L. Gustafson,

Warren