Letters To The Editor

Let's Slow Down On Global Warming Plans
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Are we out of our minds? The "promising" ideas that Sam Thernstrom discusses in his Op/Ed on global warming, "Can Engineering Fix Climate Change?" are ridiculous.

Using a fleet of ships to help increase the reflectivity of low-level clouds would cost $3 billion for an idea that might help. Spewing tons of sulfur (a pollutant) into the atmosphere to provide cooling by deflecting sunlight would obviously increase the acid rain issue. Compounds of sulfur are primary targets of emissions from automobiles and coal power plants.

Here is a better idea that will save consumers billions in electricity and auto costs: Strip off all the pollution control devices that were supposed to reduce the harmful pollutants and replace them with harmless CO2 and water vapor. Then one pollutant will offset the other in the battle against global warming. After all, it was this pollution that was causing global cooling in the 1970s that we needed to fix.

Are we to think for one moment that these new ideas that are in their infancy won't have any more disastrous side effects? Do we trust the science behind them? I don't. It is time we slow down and think about what we are doing before the global warming hysteria leads us right over a cliff.

Let's wait for a new study that includes the past 10 years when the climate has been cooling (a fact that has been handily left out of the recently released government report on global warming) to determine what if anything needs to be done. Anything else is just eco-meddling.

Ronald Schulz.
Midlothian.

Never in the history of our country have like cases been decided absolutely alike, nor have justices even been able to agree on the proper result of any particular case in front of them. That is why we have appeals courts, one of which is the Supreme Court to which Sonia Sotomayor has been nominated.

It is true that for close to 200 years, the judiciary of our country was composed almost entirely of white Anglo-Saxon male Protestants. In those years, when the male WASP judges sat down to talk over the cases in front of them, they had a lot more in common than judges do today. But even then those judges were not always able to agree.

Within the past half-century, diversity has exploded within the court systems and has made our society and government stronger. Along the way, we must expect that the non-WASP judges among us will express themselves in different ways -- and while they are doing so, contribute to a more just system for all of us.

Stan Mroczkowski.
Midlothian.

The public is turning to television and the Internet for news coverage. Regrettably these media don't deal with local events in city, county, and state government. The local reporter who follows the activities of local government might soon be no longer available to watch over our elected officials.

We all will suffer because of this lack of oversight. Alan Konkle. Manakin-Sabot.

Going Green Is Good; Not Littering Is Better
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Going green is a trendy slogan used quite a bit nowadays. What does it actually mean? The definition of going green ranges from finding alternatives to fossil fuels to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.

To me, going green is much more basic. It means trying not to litter and whenever possible picking up someone else's trash. This basic concept seems to be lost on most people. The very person who has a compost pile will throw a candy wrapper out the window of the car. Look at the pictures of the National Mall after President Barack Obama's Inauguration. The people who wanted change can't even pick up their own trash.

The problem is also local. Look at the side of the road you drive down. I doubt a person can drive 100 feet down any public road without seeing trash. Unfortunately, litter prevention is not a trendy concept. No politicians mention litter because it doesn't make for headlines. Local governments contribute to the litter problem by making access to dumps expensive or difficult because of location.

Americans spend millions of dollars a year beautifying their yards and homes. How can they ride down a road and turn a blind eye to the trash? Or even worse, they contribute to it by throwing things out their windows or letting it blow out of their trucks and trailers. When I was young there was a commercial showing an Indian who cried when he saw our country covered in trash. I understand how he felt.

Andrew Clay.
Montpelier.

Mills Godwin often noted that there was no honor higher than being the governor of Virginia. He believed that, and I am in agreement with him.

Marc James Small.
Chester.

Science, however, is not a choice. We cannot choose how the laws of physics operate, or cause a particular chemical combination to react differently than the way it does. In order to best educate ourselves, we must deal with these factual observations, as opposed to beliefs unfounded on any scientific principal.

Yes, evolution remains a theory, yet based on scientific observation, while religious beliefs remain theories not based on scientific observation, and therefore personal. So they should remain until proven.

Christopher M. Salmon.
Richmond.

Once read and signed, the document was made ready for a return trip. Wednesday morning, at 9:45 a.m., a telephone confirmed its arrival in West Virginia.

Only an e-mail would have been more expeditious. But an e-mail is unable to deliver an original document, state seal adorned. Private mail delivery required a princely sum of $8.56, one way. The postal transaction cost was 88 cents.

I am not a current or a retired postal employee. I have no business associations with the U.S. Postal Service. However, now and then we are prone to hear criticism of the system's functions. It is, however, a fact that the American post office is the least expensive, most efficient in the world. That is not only a statistic, but an observation by many who transact various communications through the stodgy but still effective mail delivery institution. Postal workers have my appreciation. They earn it every day. I.B. Koller. Richmond.