Reader's View: Attack real climate-change woes - Duluth News Tribune
Reader's View: Attack real climate-change woes - Duluth News Tribune | News, weather, and sports from Duluth, Minnesota
Reader's View: Attack real climate-change woes
From the letter: "If that is the best the League of Minnesota Cities can come up with, we have real problems."
I recently learned the city of Bloomington, Minnesota, was awarded with a 2023 Sustainable City Award by the League of Minnesota Cities at the league’s annual conference in Duluth. The city was honored for its bulky-items management program. The program began in 2022 to provide a means for residents to sustainably dispose of bulky unwanted items.
All I can say is that if that is the best the League of Minnesota Cities can come up with, we have real problems. Consider that in 2022, 16 Minnesota cities declared climate emergencies, including Bloomington. The city of Duluth declared a climate emergency in 2021.
Bloomington’s climate-emergency plan outlines a goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 75% by 2035, and it goes on to state that in spite of priorities, resolutions, and plans, the U.S., Minnesota, and the city of Bloomington have failed to meet interim goals; greenhouse-gas emissions in Bloomington are not significantly decreasing, according to the city. Yet the city is trying to bring millions of visitors to Minnesota for Expo 2027.
So, how about the League of Minnesota Cities focuses on solving problems instead of phony pats on the back? Let’s attack the real problems in Minnesota before it’s too late.
Terry Houle
ADVERTISEMENT
Bloomington, Minnesota
Email submissions to: letters@duluthnews.com
Include a full name, address and daytime phone number. Only names and hometowns will be published.
ADVERTISEMENT
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.