Get serious about reducing fossil fuel use

I find it remarkable that nowhere in Don C. Brunell’s column “Natural gas is under siege in Washington state” (Renton Reporter, Sept. 19, 2024) do the words “climate change” or “global warming” appear. Remarkable — since the existential threat of global warming is the whole reason our state leadership is seeking to discourage fossil fuel use.

It is ironic that Brunell’s column was published in the same week that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that Earth experienced its hottest August in 175 years of record-keeping.

Also that August marks the 15th-consecutive month of record-high global temperatures — which is itself a record streak.

To put it bluntly, the thinking exhibited in Brunell’s columns is narrow, short-sighted, and disregards longer-term consequences in favor of short-term profit. The human suffering, which is already resulting from climate change, is only going to grow worse as the situation become more extreme. Phoenix experienced this year its hottest meteorological summer since record-keeping began, with more than 100 days of temperatures reaching 100 degrees or hotter. This is the future more and more of us can expect unless we get serious about reducing fossil fuel use.

I am glad to be in a state whose leadership is willing to take unpopular measures to provide us all with a better future. I will be voting no on I-2066 and I encourage anyone who cares about our children’s future to do the same.

Ian Taylor,

Renton