The real story about the climate crisis
As someone who follows local and national news reports, I must tell you I am worried about the recent extreme heat and wildfires raging across the country. I feel for people who lose their lives and livelihoods to extreme weather, and it’s only a matter of time until it directly hits me and my community.
Seeing headlines in news outlets covering these climate disasters made me realize that most news stories show no connection between them and the main cause: fossil fuels. This is dangerous, because many people will continue to refuse to see that longer, hotter, and deadlier summers are caused and perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry.
The science is clear – the longer we allow fossil fuel companies to dig and burn, the worse the impacts of the climate crisis will be. But the fossil fuel industry continues to ignore these alerts and undermine our chances for a safer future. We all know this is causing the climate crisis, and yet they keep burning and profiting, with zero accountability.
Media have a moral obligation to tell the whole truth. It’s time to make one thing about extreme weather very clear: it’s not a crisis that just happens to us, it’s a crime, and the fossil fuel industry is to blame. Please tell the real story about the climate crisis.
Bruce Naegel
Sustainable Silicon Valley
Fun goes missing on New Year’s Day
The final 2023 LATC shows a picture of the New Year’s Eve Fun Run held at Foothill College in 1965. I learned from this article that this annual run started in 1960, relocated to downtown Los Altos in the mid-80s, and was discontinued 10 years later. Not true. By my recollection, the Los Altos New Year’s Fun Run has been held annually since at least 2008, canceled in 2021, and canceled in 2023 without prior notification.
Every New Year’s Day since my son was 5, we would run the Los Altos Annual 5K Fun Run at 9 a.m. on Jan. 1. One long-time participant estimated 1,000 townsfolk gathered in 2019 to greet the new year while completing a 5K – typically a fun event, which is free, noncompetitive (self-timed), without required registration, and open to all (bring your bikes, stroller, or dogs). This New Year’s Day, we are greeted to sunny skies and the Los Altos New Year’s Fun Run has been memory-holed. Now what fun is that?
Catherine Su
Los Altos
