Letters

The story about the Biden administration’s push for wind-sourced energy development off Long Island’s shores [“Biden Puts Spotlight On Waters Off Long Island For Wind Power Future,” 27east.com, April 1] is informative about the issue as it pertains to the need for clean energy and the possible negative impact on commercial and charter fishing. I sincerely hope that the legitimate needs for both clean energy and charter and commercial fishing can be reconciled.

Understandably, the story leaves out the overarching context: Climate is changing rapidly, and we are in a life-altering race to outpace the fraught possibilities of a warming planet. The April 12 issue of Energy Live News reports that “Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a level that was last seen during the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period, some 3.6 million years ago. During that period sea level was about 78 feet higher than today.”

In immediate measurable terms, climate scientists studying Antarctica’s Thwaites glacier (aka Doomsday glacier) have now been able to discern the reason for that glacier’s precipitous melt — retreating by 0.6 kilometers annually — is due to warm water making its way underneath the glacier’s ice shelf, loosening it from its bedrock.

Per Science Daily: “The ice sheet in West Antarctica accounts for about 10 percent of the current rate of sea level rise; but also the ice in West Antarctica holds the most potential for increasing that rate, because the fastest changes worldwide are taking place in the Thwaites Glacier. Due to its location and shape, Thwaites is particularly sensitive to warm and salty ocean currents that are finding their way underneath it.”

The warming waters around Antarctica are a result of burning excessive amounts of heat-trapping fossil fuel. The Biden administration gets this.

If we want an East End for our progeny to fish from, we should all feel obligated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and drawdown CO2 from the atmosphere.

Mike Anthony

Westhampton