Letter: Climate change reporting

To the editor:

Last Wednesday’s issue of the Mitchell Republic newspaper carried an 800-word column written by outdoorsman and freelance columnist Roger Wiltz of Wagner. Most of his piece consisted of takeaways from a book authored by Michael Shellenberger entitled “Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All.”

I applaud Wiltz for writing about climate change. According to Wiltz, Shellenberger’s book encourages people to support wind and solar energy as well as the advent of electric vehicles. But the book says climate change isn’t as threatening as is widely preached.

Nonetheless, another scientist’s review of Shellenberger’s book asserts the book to be fatally flawed. This other reviewer says Shellenberger seems to be arguing that his own solutions are ignored by the scientific community even though they are best.

In the same week, some South Dakota newspapers carried an AP report of a climate change speech by the U.N. secretary general. The SG’s message to the world is that it’s essential for the planet to reduce the fossil-fuel polluting-war on nature. He said that 2020 would likely be one of history’s top three hottest years and that the planet is close to climate catastrophe.

Also that week, the president-elect and VP-elect were interviewed on CNN. The president-elect had much to say about climate-change. Not only will he recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate-change, he will also lead an effort for getting nations to ramp up their domestic to meet climate targets.

Furthermore, Biden plans a national strategy for creating new jobs; jobs that will result in modern, sustainable infrastructure; jobs that will deliver a clean energy future for our country. Regional economies will be spurred by innovation that will come from national labs and universities. New and better products will be created -- products built by American workers. Many of these new products will use materials, feed-stocks, and parts supplied by family farms, small businesses, and job creators all across our country.

Dave Wegner

Sioux Falls