The year 2014 was the warmest year on record; July 2015 was the warmest month on record; and the current year is shaping up to be even warmer than 2014.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that wildfires are rampant in the drought-stricken West, fed by warm winds and dry fuel, including trees weakened by insects thriving during warmer winters.

The national media are good at describing the fires, but are reluctant to connect the dots – to make the link between the conditions I have just mentioned, and the climatic shifts that are a consequence of a warming Earth.

People in California and Washington rightfully complain about the fires burning in their states, but they, and their fellow Americans, are blind to the connection between their use of fossil fuels and the conditions responsible for those fires. They are buying more SUVs and driving longer distances simply because oil prices have dropped in recent months.

In our nation’s capital, conservatives still refuse to budge on their opposition to a carbon tax, and many, especially those in coal-mining states, are rallying behind the effort to defund the president’s new regulations on power plant emissions.

In Augusta, we have a governor who stands firm against renewable energy, and conservative legislators so cowed by him that they sustain his vetoes of bills designed to promote solar energy.

In communities throughout the state, we have municipal and school officials pushing the conversion to natural gas, ignorant or mindless of the contribution that natural gas makes to global warming.

I applaud the efforts of many local business leaders to promote renewable energy, but I believe that the only way we are going to have a fighting chance to forestall catastrophic climate change is through the ballot box. Vote only for those candidates who take renewable energy seriously.

Joe Hardy

Wells

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