Forget forecasts, what about mess in our midst?

Perhaps we can’t be sure of climate change, but we can be sure of pollution. We know that in about 150 years of industrial activity on this continent, a relatively small population laid waste to a mind-boggling number of landscapes and natural resources. Fifty years ago virtually every body of water in this area was so polluted by human activity that not only was it unsafe to drink, it was unsafe to immerse one’s body in. Add to that, the garbage and refuse strewn along highways and roads and the commonplace practice of dumping disused oil or chemicals wherever convenient, and the argument that the human animal is a voraciously destructive parasite is hard to shake

Global warming may indeed be a theory, but pollution is a fact. In considering our approach to the apparent problem of climate change, we ignore this fact, for the benefit of the very few, only at our extreme peril.

Daniel F. McCarthy, Malden