Readers Write: Nuclear power, climate, public lands, deficits and rural booze

Marine sanctuaries are being opened to commercial fishing, and the public’s federal lands are being lined up for sale to corporations. Reductions in national park staff will limit management and restoration of these national treasures enjoyed by all Americans and visitors from around the world. And the Arctic is again under attack. The House Natural Resources Committee, to pay for billionaire tax cuts, has introduced legislation that would again open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling and seismic testing that would greatly disturb polar bears and other wildlife. The public would have limited ability to challenge these actions. It would open up Cook Inlet, home to endangered beluga whales, orcas, seals and sea otters to offshore oil drilling. Tongass National Forest, an immense expanse of old-growth, carbon sequestering, temperate forest would be opened to more logging, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act would be gutted by silencing public input and weakening science and environmental review.

It is mid-May and temperatures are already climbing close to 90 degrees, with wildfires and drought risk. Trump and GOP actions are not responsible energy or environmental policy but are desperate attempts to benefit the 1%’s tax cuts, grease the skids for corporations and deny the climate crisis.

The Star Tribune must do a better job informing us of the full slate of coercive actions being taken at the federal level and we must continue to resist before our voices and public lands are fleeced from us.

Catherine Zimmer, St. Paul

The writer is an environmental scientist.

President Donald Trump has stated that our trade deficit is an emergency. He has roiled financial and commercial markets around the world with threats of tariffs.