Prioritize solar, advertisements stray too far | Letters
Prioritize solar
Recent climate news has been bleak, from destruction in Nepal to warnings from the United Nations Environment Programme that the world is likely to exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming target in the next few years, and projected to reach at least 1.8 degrees Celsius.
Small variations in degrees sound abstract, but they translate into more deadly heat, severe storms, dangerous flooding and threats to global food supplies and ecosystems. It’s alarming, but fatalism is a mistake.
Every fraction of a degree matters, and every ton of heat-trapping carbon pollution we prevent is vital. Importantly, solutions are within our reach. Leaders can accelerate clean energy deployment, prioritize efficiency and protect forests that naturally sequester emissions. These actions deliver cleaner air, lower power bills and robust economic growth.
Here in South Carolina, a 2024 study estimated the state’s solar industry could generate up to $19 billion in cumulative economic impact through 2035, including more than 3,300 permanent jobs paying approximately 46 percent above S.C. wage averages, plus thousands of construction jobs during buildout.
Yet fossil fuel lobbyists continue to push their agenda in Washington. We must counter them by advocating for solutions that cut pollution, strengthen the grid, protect communities and improve daily life.
In turn, members of Congress can’t pay lip service to these concerns. As we head to the ballot box, let’s make it clear to incumbent leaders — and candidates seeking our votes — that they must vocalize how they’ll prioritize this issue and back up their words with action. So call Congress, ask a question at a candidate debate and urge friends, family and neighbors to do the same. Our future depends on it.
CHARLOTTE WARD
Greenville
Ads stray too far
Medicine is an extraordinarily unique profession where we have multiple opportunities to be good and do good. The fundamental principles of medicine are to uphold the highest levels of ethics, professionalism and social responsibility, all included in the oath taken at the time when the medical degree is granted.
How far we have strayed from these principles was revealed to me when I viewed a recent commercial on television for a large gastrointestinal practice in Charleston. The physicians (mostly older white males, of whom I am one) were dressed as football players in uniforms and attempting to throw a pass.
What purpose does this serve? Historically, physicians always strived to maintain their ethical, societal and professional imperatives. I clearly understand the plethora of legal firms advertising, but when has it become the norm for physicians to do the same? Is this type of advertising a reason why the trust in physicians is at a historic low point?
I suggest these GI physicians reread the oath they took at medical school graduation, adhere to the ethics of our noble profession, remove this commercialization of medicine from the airwaves and return to the nobility of our profession. It’s not about how far you’ve strayed, but how quickly you can find your way back.
LOUIS WEINSTEIN, M.D.
Charleston
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