Climate Issue Kudos

Kudos to you for an outstanding Climate Issue (April 2023). A beautiful presentation of so many fine Princetonians working in service of humanity. Rays of hopefulness through the dark clouds of the daily news of climate calamities.

And congratulations to Divest Princeton for achieving a landmark success and recognizing that the work is not yet complete. Obviously, divestment is not complete if there are still substantial investments in privately held fossil-fuel operations. And the tragic flaws in the otherwise impressive Net-Zero America report from the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment are not likely to be corrected until the disassociation from the oil industry’s direct influence is completed.

Finally, what a fitting introduction (I always read the Inbox first) to this fine issue: three well composed, civil responses to the January article featuring Professor Robert George and conservatives’ losing battle for relevance. After reading that article I was wondering just how do you challenge incoming students so intent on working against environmental degradation? Today it came to me while reading about the events that sparked the first Earth Day. You show them a picture of a clean river in a remote part of this beautiful country and say: “The Clean Water Act was such an overreaction! See, not all of the rivers were on fire.”