Disqualify Republican presidential front-runners who deny climate change reality | Opinion

Chris Dilts/Sipa USA

Republican denial

Presidential debate shows how GOP candidates are struggling to address concerns about climate change,” (fresnobee.com, Aug. 24)

During the recent Republican presidential debate, candidates were asked whether they believed in human-caused climate change. Not a single one raised their hand. One was openly hostile to the idea and endorsed coal and oil. Meanwhile, the likely frontrunner for the nomination, Donald Trump, actively rolled back climate protections in office.

This is a humiliating situation. Over half the country — 54%, according to the Pew Research Center — views climate change as a “major threat.” Yet when “polarizing” terms like “climate change” are replaced by green policy suggestions, like swapping fossil fuels with renewables, the percentage of supporters spikes dramatically (to 69%, in that specific case).

Putting aside, for a moment, the scientific validity of human-caused climate change (it’s valid), Republicans lack a presidential candidate that represents the opinions of a major segment of the public. For Republican voters, this should be worrying. Electability is hurting their party.

Some Republican representatives in the Valley only won in the last election due to abysmal voter turnout. Meanwhile, disagreements on what’s important prevents working across the aisle. If Republicans want to remain relevant, they need to push candidates who actually represent them on issues like climate change. In the meantime, Democrats will finally get to have a conversation about real, meaningful solutions.

C.J. Wilson

Fresno

Candidate requirement: Care about human life

Presidential debate shows how GOP candidates are struggling to address concerns about climate change,” (fresnobee.com, Aug. 24)

None of the eight Republican presidential candidates who participated in the most recent televised debate raised their hands when asked if they think humans cause climate change. This conflicts directly with what the world’s top scientists have said. Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Trump are the worst of the bunch, as they support measures that would bolster fossil fuel production and increase deaths resulting from extreme weather events, including heat, wildfires, floods, drought and wind.

Candidates that do not care about lives — especially those of our children and grandchildren — should be disqualified from running for the presidency. Furthermore, Trump obstructed the peaceful transition of power and violated his oath of office to uphold the Constitution. Trump reacted poorly to the COVID crisis; abused women; genuflected to demagogues like Vladimir Putin; attacked Gold Star families; separated immigrant families; built a little fence (that was not paid for by Mexico); and placed crooks in his cabinet. There must be strong reasons that people support him despite his destructive behavior.

Some say he temporarily lowered the taxes for the wealthy, but this has contributed to inflation and increased our national debt. What is it that Trump accomplished and stands for that enables his supporters to overlook his endless list of negatives?

Steven Murov

Hughson

Opinion

Dear obnoxious stranger

Fresno California COVID-19 & vaccine News,” (fresnobee.com)

Our lives intersected on a Saturday flight from Chicago to Fresno. We never spoke. I was on the final leg of a flight from Dublin, Ireland. We were both in aisle seats, in the 32nd row.

I am in my 70s, and you were having uncontrolled fits of coughing, and should not have been flying that day. You did not cover your mouth with a mask or with your hand. There’s a social contract we all have in this COVID era: We try not to spread this disease by following simple, unenforced, rules. If we ignore those rules for our own convenience, that contract falls apart.

When we boarded, I noticed that a young woman traveling with her toddler took the window seat. A kind stranger in 31D offered her a blanket for the child, who was just learning to walk, and was as cute as a button. He fell asleep in a cloud of your poisonous air. I contracted COVID from that flight, and while I cannot say with certainty where it came from, I have a pretty good idea. I hope that none of the other good people that surrounded us that night suffered the same fate.

James Gallagher

Mariposa

Time to choose, America

A look inside Donald Trump’s deposition,” (fresnobee.com, Aug. 31)

When Donald Trump lost the last election, I observed that it’s not Trump we need to worry about, but the 74 million Americans who voted for him in the 2020 election. This is evident in the violence perpetrated toward people and officials, especially in Georgia, who were threatened and harassed for their efforts to prosecute Trump and his accomplices for the January 6 coup.

There is an ugliness spreading in our country — be it the brainwashing of people with the banning of books; stripping educational classes and material from school curriculum; denying voter access with racist laws; criminalizing people in need of abortion and seeking health care; targeting our poor and homeless and our LGBTQ+ neighbors. This is an ugliness we ignore at our own risk.

The questions are: Whether we have the compassion and courage to change the partisanship, prejudice and pure racial hatred that is dividing us? What exactly are we teaching our children? So far, we still have the “freedom” to make this choice.

The time to choose is now! Will we?

Jovita Harrah

Fresno

Cancel Cemex contract

Fresno leaders must end CEMEX’s San Joaquin River operations,” (fresnobee.com, Aug. 17)

There is so much traffic on Friant Road now due to the eyesore that is the new apartments on Friant and Copper Avenue. Canceling the Cemex Rockfield Plant contract is a no-brainer.

Patty Head

Fresno