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Dec. 9, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: Thank you, News-Gazette, for your opinion piece of Dec 4 that highlighted the importance of global warming and the need for informed voters to make their voices heard. Your rhetorical question, “Is climate change real?” shocked me. Yes, there are some folks who don’t follow this issue.
Many older people are aware that winter snow cover in our county has declined over the past 50 years. A dear neighbor of ours long ago told me so 20 years ago. She remembered snow drifting to fence height for months that allowed walking across fences to play with friends in nearby farms otherwise distant by road. At the end of this November we had in our yard at least six different plant species budding and/ or blooming. Have you seen this happening in your yard? So nature is telling us something here in Rockbridge County: shorter, milder winters, and longer, hotter, drier summers.
In the rest of the world, almost all glaciers on the planet are melting and disappearing. Sea level is rising as a result. The number of record daily high temperatures in the U.S. much exceeds the number of record lows. Each of these facts are verifiable, and increasing heat is the only reasonable answer. Since the 1980s, NASA has been measuring land and sea temperatures with a series of more than a dozen satellites. Visit their website (nasa climate) and learn about what they are finding. NOAA, the people that bring you weather info, also measures sea and air temperatures, and their website (noaa climate change) is excellent (there are many excellent sources that explain climate change).
Our experience tells us that our homeplace is getting warmer. Our governmental agencies have measured warming for decades. It is real. We must decide what to do.
It’s up to us.
PHYLLIS FEVRIER Walkers Creek
