Already warming

Dear Editor,

While it makes a good opening for an article on the findings of climate scientists, "things are about to start heating up" is a pretty misleading sentence (Monday, Oct. 8, 2012, "Panel: Climate changes threaten Nebraska's water resources"). The mercury's been rising for quite a while now, as witness this single statistic: July 2012 was the 329th consecutive month to exceed the global average temperature for the twentieth century. While this increase is bad news for us all, we can still make it worse -- by rejecting the reality of global warming, and by blocking action until catastrophic consequences are unavoidable.

It's impossible to imagine a more cynical and destructive approach to governance than the deny-and-delay strategy that is the modus operandi of conservative politicians when it comes to addressing the climate crisis. Self-styled "deficit hawks" who claim that reducing our greenhouse emissions would be prohibitively expensive are essentially telling us that prevention costs more than cure -- a notion both logically absurd and morally bankrupt.

We cannot afford further inaction on climate change.

Warren Senders

Medford, Mass.