Occasional Observer

Each year American families purchase more than 30 million cut Christmas trees and an even greater number of fake plastic ones to serve for a couple of weeks as the centerpiece of their holiday home decoration. But a more environmentally friendly solution would be to forego the cut or fake tree and substitute instead a live tree.

Floods are so common that we seldom pay much attention to them. But lately floods have become more severe and weather forecasters are saying that they are only going to get much worse.

Recent news regarding the environment has been varied, some quite discouraging while other news seems very optimistic.

Two gentlemen from Indiana, one a politician the other a public-spirited industrialist, show strikingly by example what has happened to the Republican party over the past half century. Curiously, both men came from the same town, Columbus, Ind., a thriving community of 48,000 people about 40 miles south of Indianapolis.

I know it’s presumptuous of me, an American, to be telling you, the president of the world’s largest country, how to conduct your business but I think it’s time somebody did even if it’s a person without proper qualifications or deep knowledge of your special circumstances.

Three years ago I offered nine New Year’s environmental resolutions for Lakeville Journal readers to consider; they were: Recycle more; Avoid unnecessary containers; Eat less meat, more vegetables; Drive less; Think carefully before building; Protect trees, especially older ones; Do you need to plant grass?; Compost your vegetable waste; Donate

Wreaking havoc across Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky, the spate of tornadoes that hit several of the southeastern  states Friday, Dec. 10, were terrifying and ominous. There was not one but several that did severe damage in five states and acted like a coordinated team of killers.

People are finally coming to realize that climate change is being caused primarily by the ever increasing concentration of global warming gases in the atmosphere. But what should we do about this? The obvious answer is to cut way back on the use of fossil fuels which, when burned, produce these gases, especially carbon dioxide.