Opinion

Dear Editor,

Among the few things that we truly fear in the San Lorenzo Valley are mountain lions, flooding, earth quakes, and fires.  When a state entity institutes a program to help combat one of them, it should make sense that it would be whole-heartedly embraced.  However, that has not been the case for Cal Fire’s Fire Prevention “Fee” that was first levied upon Valley home-owners in 2012.  Come October 10th we will be paying our second round of fees.

Santa Cruz County parks are a well-loved resource for the community. I’m heartened to see children bicycling around the Covered Bridge Park and to see the hundreds of children playing baseball and climbing the “tower” at Highlands Park and thousands of people who enjoy visiting Quail Hollow Park.

EDITOR,

In his March 29 column, Mark Rosenberg suggests that Americans cannot afford to pay for the rapid transition to renewable energy needed to drastically slow the pace of climate change. In fact, we cannot afford not to. We are already paying for climate change. The increasingly frequent and intense wildfires cost Californians nearly $20 billion in 2017, and the mounting tallies from the devastating fires around the state in 2018 are certain to be higher. The Fourth National Climate Assessment released last year estimated that climate change has caused U.S. taxpayers $350 billion dollars over the past decade alone. If we continue with “business as usual”, these costs will skyrocket in coming years due to the increased health costs of heat waves and spreading tropical diseases, rebuilding our water infrastructure to adapt to the declining snowpack, building barriers to prevent flooding of low-lying coastal cities, and myriad other impacts.  Investing now to rapidly transition to a more sustainable energy base will save us large sums of money over the long-term. It seems like a sound investment to us.

Sitting on my desk is a letter to the editor. I bet you’re all dying to hear what it says.

EDITOR,