Letters: The war on global warming

Re “Where the shore used to be,” Nov. 4

The decade from 2001 to 2010 holds the record for the most Category 5 Atlantic hurricanes: eight. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans and severely damaged other cities on the Gulf Coast. Now we have Sandy, which has caused tens of billions of dollars in damage in New York and New Jersey.

Will this decade break the previous record? How many more hurricanes and tornadoes must occur before the governments of the world admit that “we have met the enemy, and he is us,” as Pogo famously proclaimed? In 2010, the U.S. alone emitted more than 7 billion tons of greenhouse gases, which raise ocean temperatures and cause more-violent storms.

If a rogue nation began destroying our cities, we would prepare for war. The time has come for the world to begin a full-scale battle against an even deadlier enemy: global warming.

David Perlman

Laguna Beach

Thank you for the article on super storm Sandy’s devastation of the Jersey Shore.

I grew up in central New Jersey, and every summer in the 1960s when I was a kid, my parents rented a small bungalow in Manasquan, just off the beach. I have fond memories of spending all day swimming and each night playing skeeball with my sister on the boardwalk.

I hope the New Jersey beach towns can be brought back so families in the future can have fun, just like mine did.

George I. Meyer

Long Beach

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