Global warming fix needed now

NASA just released the latest scientific findings that show our planet’s climate crisis is worsening at a much faster pace than previously thought. Then President Bush came out with new goals for reducing CO? emissions.

But let’s forget about playing nice with President Bush at the G-8 summit — his proposed goals are a waste of time and simply more reheated, week-old leftovers.

The world needs action now, and new studies by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences raises some very serious issues: Global warming is accelerating three times more quickly than feared, and emissions of carbon dioxide have been rising at thrice the rate of the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting three times as fast — and the seas are rising twice as rapidly — as had been predicted.

News of the studies, which are bound to lead to calls for even tougher anti-pollution measures than have yet been contemplated, comes as the leaders of the world’s most powerful nations prepare for the most crucial meeting yet on tackling climate change.

It’s time that America lead the charge in solving our dependence on foreign oil. If we can get to the moon, we can surely form a Manhattan Project-type effort to find a solution to our energy needs.

The time is now. Denial is no longer an option. And protecting the profits of the coal industry must stop.

DAVID CHAMBERS

LAS VEGAS

No ‘step’ for you

To the editor:

Once again I have read a Review-Journal editorial that says teachers receive much bigger pay raises than what the Legislature allocates due to “step” increases (“They’re sticking to the union,” Friday).

I’ve been teaching in Clark County for 40 years, and I am only on “step 16.” I must’ve missed a few of those “steps.” For more than 20 years, the only raises I’ve received were those that were doled out from Carson City.

This year, the Clark County School District started new hires on “step 3” to present a more attractive salary package. We will be facing an even greater teacher shortage next fall due, in part, to the short-sightedness and attitude displayed by the Review-Journal editorial board.

I truly do not understand your bias against education. Did a teacher bite you when you were young?

JEAN LAITY

LAS VEGAS

Great cesspool

To the editor:

The Democrats took control of Congress promising openness, particularly with earmarks, the representatives’ personal bribes to their constituents. Remember the “Bridge to Nowhere”?

Now, Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., has decided to keep earmarks secret until it is too late to challenge them. Padding bills with wasteful projects is a direct contravention to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s promise to the American people of greater fiscal responsibility. Diogenes couldn’t find truth in the halls of Congress if he spent a lifetime there.

Politics has become a game of personal gain — notice how quickly a politician’s net worth increases as he feverishly holds onto his seat? And if a politician is unseated, where does he go? Into lobbying, where they still exert influence on bills and those dreaded earmarks.

Congress couldn’t even pass a meaningful time limit before a defeated representative could become a lobbyist. Does that tell you something?

I refer to Congress as the big toilet because of its contents. Perhaps I should upgrade that designation to the Great Cesspool.

WILLIAM F. BRENNAN

LAS VEGAS

Traffic court

To the editor:

With all of the traffic problems that Las Vegas has, I was shocked to learn that our judges are reducing the charges and fines of those cited for traffic violations (Monday Review-Journal).

Instead of being allowed to pay reduced fines, these drivers should be hit with the maximum that the law allows and the points.

How else will these people ever learn?

Justice of the Peace Douglas Smith was quoted as saying that people are more worried about the driver’s license points than the amount of the fine because their insurance rates will go up. Good. Let the scofflaws pay more for their insurance. Then maybe, just maybe, they will examine their own driving habits and make the proper adjustments.

If a person wants to take his case to court, that is fine — as long as he pays the full costs involved if he is found guilty.

RANDY L. SHEREDA

LAS VEGAS