Nicolas Loris believes we should walk away from the Paris Agreement. His argument in a May 23 opinion column is twofold. First, fossil fuels are affordable and reliable, while renewables are expensive and unreliable. Second, even if the Paris agreement is fully implemented, it won’t reduce global temperatures by more than a “meager .2 degrees Celsius.”
In his first point, he gets it backward. Anyone who has lived through the boom-and-bust energy cycles of the last 40 years knows that fossil fuel costs are very volatile. While we seem to be currently enjoying relative abundance, in fact the majority of oil-producing countries are seeing production declines, and the oil that is coming to market is shifting to higher-cost, lower-quality crude. While we may or may not yet be at “peak oil,” it is pretty certain that fossil fuel energy cost and availability are unlikely to be stable in the future.
As to renewables, he trots out statistics about their high cost and negative employment effects — likely provided by electric energy lobbyists. He has missed the dramatic price decreases and robust employment growth in the renewable energy sector. For example, average global prices of offshore wind dropped 28 percent last year. This allowed Denmark’s Dong Energy, the world’s largest provider of offshore wind farms, to win a German power auction without any subsidies. As to stability, once a wind turbine or solar farm is installed, the energy source is free. You can’t get more stable than that.
His skepticism about the Paris Accord is misplaced. The goal is to reduce warming to 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels and most models agree that the current Paris targets are not going to achieve that goal. Under current Paris commitments, the global temperature will rise by 2.7 degrees Celsius. But if we follow Loris’ path and do nothing, the projected temperatures will be 0.6 to 1.1 degrees Celsius higher than that. Paris is a beginning and provides a framework, but we have to be more aggressive.
Loris thinks it would be better to scrap the agreement and use more fossil fuel. By this logic, if the fire department came to his burning house and it was clear they were not using enough water to douse the flames, he would advocate switching to gasoline.
Michael Hillinger
Etna
Spring ushers in a flurry of activity, from the decluttering of closets to the priming of grills. Meanwhile, a bustling hum also emanates from fields and forests as many species of wildlife begin their rituals of courtship and mating. There is more going on than meets the eye of the casual observer. The open fields that give us hay for forage and offer up our serene pastoral views have an entire world of life beneath their canopy of grass. The fate of many of the fields’ busy inhabitants will soon hinge upon landowners’ decisions.
Bobolinks, eastern meadowlarks and savannah sparrows depend entirely on grasslands, building their nests on the ground, hidden under a protective canopy of grass. In New England’s forest-dominated landscape, farmers have been responsible for supplying the grassland habitat that is used by these declining species. The fate of the birds has been intertwined with the productivity of our local farms.
Landowners with flexibility or who qualify for incentives can provide critical nesting habitat for grassland birds by making adjustments to their mowing schedules. Avoiding mowing late May to late July allows birds to reproduce and survive. Delaying mowing until Aug. 1 or at least late July allows most fledglings time to develop flight skills needed to avoid machinery. Alternatively, farm operations with less flexibility can make a first cut before June 1 and a second cut after Aug. 5. There are even private and federal programs available that offer financial support for qualifying landowners.
Grassland birds need suitable breeding habitat. The Vermont Center for Ecostudies has documented severe declines in New England populations. For example, eastern meadowlarks have disappeared from 75 percent of fields they previously occupied in only the last 15 years. Long-term, declining trends extend across the species’ breeding ranges. Providing suitable breeding habitat on our open lands leaves a legacy of thriving grasslands for future generations.
If you’d like to see a bobolink up close and learn about managing grasslands to benefit these declining birds, the Vermont Center for Ecostudies will be banding bobolinks and joining with the Upper Valley Land Trust to offer management tips from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 3, at 70 Cossingham Road in Norwich. To RSVP and for more information, contact Cathryn Abbott at cabbott@vtecostudies.org
Rosalind Renfrew
White River JunctionThe writer is a conservation biologist at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies
On his first trip outside the country, it’s nice to see President Donald Trump getting the kind of respect his office deserves. Too bad the same can’t be said about his treatment by our media, including this newspaper.
Jeff Lehmann
Lyme Center
I very rarely get visibly emotional. Today I did. My wife and I were visiting Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish. We have been to Saint-Gaudens often in the past. So, today we passed on the guided tour and walked the property at a leisurely pace.
We turned a corner and came to the highlight of the site, the standing statue of Abraham Lincoln. It is a 12-foot high replica of the original, which Saint-Gaudens made for Lincoln Park in Chicago. We stood looking at this incredible statue of one of our country’s greatest presidents. My wife turned and said that I had tears in my eyes, and I did. While feeling the immense character of Lincoln, I could not help being overcome by the huge difference in character that our current president projects. I’ve been alive through the presidencies of 12 individuals before Trump. Some were better than others, but none of these 12 induced in me non-stop fear for our country as does this president.
I urge my fellow Americans to support efforts to remove this mockery of a president by the ballot box, or by the impeachment process.
Hamilton Holt
Lebanon
I agree 100 percent with Franklin Gould of Lebanon on his Forum letter, “Save Lebanon’s History” about Densmore Brick Yard (May 9).
A few years back we saw a documentary by Stefan Van Norden on this (Hand of Brick, online at vimeo.com/84994405) and was hoping something more would come of it. I wanted to go and see the “beehive,” but it’s closed off for public safety.
Barbara Nielsen
White River Junction