Readers React: An educated citizenry is key to fighting climate change

It is unfortunate that the issue of climate change has become politicized (“Think the climate change fight is tough? What about the 17th century fight over math?,” May 3). As I see it, much of the problem is that most people have had little to no environmental education. Hence, all statements of opinion or fact are based on a limited understanding of the core themes of the natural world.

Yet the science of ecology is based on mounds of evidence and data. We are fortunate to live at a time when these theories are solid enough to show trends for the future.

Without a scientific context, people can promote ideas that have no basis in objective reality. Whether factual or fictional, they cannot explain their ideas more deeply because they have never studied ecology.

For the last 20 years I have been pushing for mandatory environmental education in California high schools. We cannot afford to have another generation of people who are ignorant of the fundamental cycles of nature.

Teri Redman Kahn

Los Angeles

You don’t have to be a climate scientist to be convinced that global warming is real.

How else do you account for the fact that people have recently navigated the once-impenetrable Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean? And how else do you explain the fact that the glaciers of Glacier National Park are melting away?

We can debate what to do about it: whether to try to get the world to reduce greenhouse gases, to plan for relocating coastal populations, and how to deal with droughts and more intense storms. But the debate about whether the planet is getting warmer is over.

Scott McKenzie

La Cañada Flintridge

Accurate science requires accurate interpretation of the facts if the result is to be commendable politics. Science does not stand alone any more than religion stands alone to guide our decision-making.

In this complex world, most of us line up behind the experts we trust and then put our political weight behind them. In the case of climate change, Bill McKibben and Al Gore speak for me. So I promote their articles and books among my friends with much enthusiasm.

“The aura of objective truth” is a figment of the imagination. When we are seeking public policy on climate change, nuclear weapons or genetically modified food, it is the right thing to do to become informed as best we can and then help shape the future of our society.

Albert Cohen

Pasadena