Letters to the Editor: Are anti-fossil fuel UC students ready to dump air conditioning and gas heating?

To the editor: So, University of California officials have decided to divest the university system portfolio from all fossil fuel.

Are these same officials, along with those who formed Fossil Free UC students, now ready to follow through with their own personal fossil fuel sacrifices? Should they now propose that all UC campuses have the gas central heating switched off during the cold of winter and air conditioning off during the intense heat of summer?

These are some of the personal sacrifices that should be made by those proposing a fossil-free environment. One would hope these advocates are willing to make these personal sacrifices to achieve the goals of environmental improvement.

Janet Polak, Beverly Hills

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To the editor: Universities are discovering that the stock market is a powerful tool to fight climate change. It worked for South African apartheid, so we’re trying it for carbon dioxide emissions.

Let’s start using the free market more directly and put a price on carbon.

Remove the subsidies on fossil fuels and let us see what they are actually costing us. Level the playing field for the real costs of fossil fuels and renewables. Use the carbon fees to invest in the industries of the 21st century, not the 19th century, and create jobs that cannot be outsourced.

We can start repairing the damage we’ve done to our world without wrecking our economy. We can have the clean air we’ve had the last two months without having to risk our lives. Tell your elected representatives it’s time to build the new economy and not salvage the old one.

Sanford Krasner, Altadena