Letters

A recent opinion piece by Tom Clavin correctly points out the burgeoning problems we are experiencing through climate change, drought and increasing stress on water supplies locally, nationally and globally [“We’re In Hot Water,” The Road Yet Taken, Opinion, August 25].

Mr. Clavin could not resist a dig on the “climate deniers or ignorers” who are “in the pocket of major fossil fuel interests.” These days, anyone with a dose of reality and skepticism is vulnerable to such public shaming; Clavin even slipped in antivaxxers. Mere mention of a difference in perspective often is met with withering disdain.

Reality bears many inconvenient truths that the elite prefer to ignore.

Yes, increasing carbon dioxide emissions is contributing to climate change, and we should certainly be taking steps to mitigate it — but at what cost? Solar, wind and electric vehicles are all necessary in this process, but one cannot turn off the petroleum spigot as the ardent greenies would like.

Shipping and rail are still the cheapest and least polluting sources of transportation per tonnage mile; no other mode can even come close to matching. Air travel surely will be in the pocket of the petroleum industry for the foreseeable future.

Creating shortages in available fossil fuels before other alternatives are ready for prime time is economic and existential suicide. Look no further than Europe, and specifically Germany, with their reliance on Russia for their energy needs. The present-day U.S. high petroleum prices and shortages were completely avoidable; however, the first action the Biden administration took upon taking office reversed our energy independence.

Skepticism is healthy; blind fealty to our government bureaucracy can be very detrimental to your health and welfare. The fractured and inconsistent pandemic response clearly indicates the havoc the administrative state can render. Antivaxxers and most anyone in disagreement with the totalitarian control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx have been vilified, shamed, censored, fired and deplatformed on social media.

Anyone with even casual empirical hindsight can see the vaccine does not create an immunity to COVID-19. Dr. Birx has publicly stated that she knew from the beginning the COVID shots would not create an immunity.

The pandemic of the unvaccinated is now the pandemic of the vaccinated, as the entire world has been mandated to have these shots, or their lives will become a living hell if they need to work, travel or even wish to see a show. Informed consent among the sheeple is impermissible.

Tens of thousands of medical doctors and researchers signed The Great Barrington Declaration in objection to the medical protocols and mandates. Many of these doctors have suffered extreme professional persecution for their efforts, though they are tops in their fields of study.

John Porta

Westhampton