Editorials / Opinion

Seattle Times letters to the editor

Stand up to greed

Greed may trump efforts to leave our children and their children a healthy planet. Why would anyone invest in the dirtiest, most carbon-intensive fossil fuel on the plant if not out of greed?

Be a voice of sanity and let President Obama and locally elected officials know that rejection of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is one of the most important and immediate executive steps the president can take to address the climate crisis [“Obama’s climate goals shape Energy, EPA choices,” News, March 5].

NASA’s leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, said that tar sands development would mean “game over for the climate.”

Like the coal exports through the Northwest, the tar sands pipeline stands to damage the environment over the creation of sustainable jobs. Most of the money earned in both the coal and tar sands scenarios will go to a few top executives for whom money matters most.

Stand up to greed. Stand up for the Earth.

–Wendy Marcus, Seattle

Protect wildlife from climate change

President Obama must reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline if he wants to keep his promise to protect America’s wildlife and communities from climate change, a fact that’s only reinforced by a recent State Department review. That woefully inadequate analysis failed not only in its review of climate science, but whistled past the threat of oil spills to endangered wildlife.

Tar sands drilling in Canada threatens gray wolves, lynx and woodland caribou. In America’s heartland, corrosive tar sands oil raises the risk of pipeline spills, menacing endangered whooping cranes. And the global warming pollution emitted at every step of production threatens wildlife nationwide, from Alaska’s polar bears to Minnesota’s moose to Virginia’s brook trout to Colorado’s mule deer.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have raised their voices for wildlife protection and climate action. President Obama should listen to them and say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

–Richard Landowski, Gig Harbor