Letters

A building falls in Florida, people asleep are crushed and won’t see the sun again. Despite all the warning signs and the experts, the unthinkable happened.

It’s human nature to put things off, to believe we can fix it tomorrow. The board of directors, all smart people, were told, and engineers wrote reports, but nothing prepared anyone for this catastrophe.

I grieve for the families — nothing I’m going to say should take away from that — but there are lessons to be learned.

As horrible as this event was, it’s nothing compared to the warnings about the climate. Yet we go about our lives as if there will be time to address these signs. There isn’t! One day we will wake up and experience a different collapse.

An environmentalist said that 97 percent of all living things on Earth are now extinct, and the only reason man has survived is that he has been able to deal with the elements.

I have tried to help fight climate change for 10 years. I built a 100 percent greenhouse for builders to copy in Southampton Village and a 19.6 megawatt solar farm on the island. Most of us agree about climate change but don’t know how to help. We can’t sit on the sidelines anymore.

A building came down — no planes hitting it, no hurricane, no war, just inertia when the sky was falling. With enough people behind a movement, we can move mountains. Join me and let’s make a grassroots movement and see how far we can take it; this is definitely out of my comfort zone, too: ryouthsave@gmail.com.

Jerry Rosengarten

Southampton Village