Existential threat

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To the Editor:

“Most of us just don’t get it,” says the Friends Committee for National Legislation (FCNL). “Don’t get what? That we have only a short time to take big initiatives to mitigate the coming impact of human-caused global warming.”

According to the FCNL’s recent newsletter, “Virtually all people, every nation, and our entire biosphere face one looming existential threat: the future impact of human-caused global warming … Watching the cable or broadcast news, you’d think that the existential threat was from hardworking immigrants, a handful of al-Qaeda extremists, from Wall Street, or from BP’s Gulf Oil spill.”

To that, I add that if you follow local news, you’d think the greatest threat is untreated wastewater, inadequate libraries, or wind turbines.

I encourage everyone, especially selectmen and members of the MVC, to read the FCNL report and adjust their priorities. The report can be found at www.fcnl.org/now/pdf/2010/JulyAugust.pdf.

Chris Fried

Tisbury