Letters: It's time for Illinois to divest from fossil fuel companies to take more action against climate change - Chicago Tribune

Letters: It’s time for Illinois to divest from fossil fuel companies to take more action against climate change

Recent weather events have made it ever clearer that climate change is here and not a myth about the future. Just this summer, Illinois has seen days with temperatures over 100 degrees, flooding and drought. The rest of the country has seen historic wildfires, a hurricane on the West Coast and emergency-level heat in the Southwest.

We have until 2030 until we reach 1.5 degrees of climate change, so time is running out to act. The time for half measures is over. The state of Illinois should pass House Bill 3037 in the next session to align its financial investments with climate action and the Climate and Equity Jobs Act.

HB3037 will divest Illinois state and city of Chicago pension funds from the top oil, coal and natural gas companies. New York state, Maine, New York City and the city of Chicago, to name a few, have already divested or committed to divesting, joining a $40 trillion movement.

Divesting from fossil fuels is not financially risky. Illinois needs to keep our state livable for the next generation.

— Melissa Brice, Chicago

Climate change and elections

Earth’s atmosphere and oceans have already risen in temperature almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, faster than predicted. People and animals are dying; species are going extinct.

Still, Republicans in Congress and many state legislatures refuse to vote for strategies to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases or to replace fossil fuel electrical production with nonpolluting alternatives.

The 2024 elections will be the most crucial in history, as life on earth and civilization as we know it depend upon replacing those officials unwilling to embrace climate change reality.

— Nathaniel Batchelder, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Reduce roadside mowing

Pollinators and other beneficial insects have been in peril for years. There are many practices that can help. A simple one is to just reduce roadside mowing. Let’s not mow the backslope of road ditches. Illinois could create thousands of acres of pollinator habitat along its highways. Unmown grass helps ground-nesting pollinators; over time, flowers will populate. Studies have shown that unmown roadsides increase the populations of ground-nesting birds.

Reducing mowing of roadsides saves tax dollars and reduces emissions of greenhouse gasses. This is a win-win for all. Let’s educate ourselves that every little bit of habitat helps.

— Dean Farr, Crystal Lake

2 plants that attract bees

If you want to attract bees, grow these two plants: anise hyssop and, most especially, calamintha nepeta, a mint. The latter spreads like wildfire and should be hacked down to the ground in the fall, but bees love it. I have let it spread all over my yard exactly because of the bees. At any given time in the summer, there are usually at least six kinds of bees in and around it. Last summer I sat on my back steps and just listened to the droning of the bees. Recently, as our temperatures hit 100, the bees were still out, doing their thing.

An added bonus to the anise hyssop, besides bees, is the goldfinch, which will perch on the plant and eat the flowers.

A word of warning, however. In spite of all the hype over coneflowers, bees will not go to any that have been hybridized. I learned this the hard way, planting a bubble gum variety. The bees won’t touch it.

— Catherine Wilson, Elmhurst

Bike tour showcased city

Before the just-completed Bike the Drive bicycle ride, there was the Boulevard Lakefront Tour. It was a wonderful equidistant bicycle ride that meandered through the neighborhoods that make up Chicago via the major boulevards that crisscross the city.

It had routes as far south as Hyde Park, west toward the United Center, north past Lincoln Park Zoo and finally down the lakefront path ending at Buckingham Fountain with a decidedly rising sun over Lake Michigan reflecting off some of the same unique architecture as today. It was a delightful ride on a Sunday morning that showcased Chicago’s neighborhoods with citizens shouting out, “Hey,” or “Good morning,” from their front porches or a simple “hello” as they went to their houses of worship across the land.

I rode it for years. I always looked forward to it, and then it abruptly ended, which decidedly ended the experience of actually seeing Chicago from where its heart beats strong: the neighborhoods of the working men and women who make the city run.

— Thomas Burgan, Geneva

Cyclists’ lack of decency

It happened again in late August. I was walking down a public sidewalk going to the bank. A bike rider narrowly missed hitting me on my left side. Not a word, a bell ring or horn in the way of a warning.

As my heart raced, I cursed at the high and mighty bike rider and asked, “Why didn’t you say something?” He told me, “Why? I didn’t hit you.” And he told me I should stay more to the right of the 5-foot sidewalk because he has the right to ride on the sidewalk.

Chicago Tribune Opinion

This happens a lot on the forest preserve trails as well. The Cook County trail speed limit is 15 mph. Yet riders go 30 mph or more. The rider is required to pass on the left with the common courtesy phrase of “on your left” or the ring of a bell. Perhaps the honk of a horn.

We have opened up walking trails and sidewalks and have ruined many main thoroughfares in support of cyclists.

Is it too much to ask cyclists for a small gesture of warning when they approach us from behind? I think cyclists should be licensed and insured. Not everyone, but the ones in the public way should.

Make them pass a bicycle rules of the road test. The state and county could use the revenue.

— Larry Geraghty, Tinley Park

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