Greg Kesich (Dec. 20) is quite right to point out how important it is that our public and our elected officials pay attention to science (“The View From Here: Vaccination needs to win over skeptics”) as we face the COVID pandemic. We absolutely need to roll up our sleeves and do this.

It’s also worth considering that vaccination is not the only crucial issue where many find their skepticism with science. No issue looms larger in our time than the climate crisis. The unprecedented wildfires in Australia and California are just the beginning.

The most common weather-related health problems are related to heat waves, which we will see increasingly around the world and in the U.S. Climate change is causing the expansion of serious disease around the planet (including dengue fever in Florida and Lyme disease in Maine). Climate change will increasingly complicate regional conflicts around the world and will cause unprecedented security issues for our children and grandchildren.

Scientists are clear: We need to act. Economists note that putting a price on carbon is the most useful first step we can make. There’s a plan to do this (carbon cash back) that doesn’t grow the government and makes almost all Mainers better off. Maine is the only state to have both our senators in the Climate Solutions Caucus. It is crucial that Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King hear that many of us in Maine do listen to the science, and we need them to act.

Edward Pontius, M.D.
Portland

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