Dear Editor,
I turn 80 this summer, leading me to reflect about my life and what to do with the time I may have left. I have a lot of gratitude for a youth growing up in the Roanoke Valley, and many years of life and work in other places, retiring here. I’ve also thought a lot about the sad state of things, not so much hereabouts (we’ve been lucky so far). One thing is critical, we as a society need to account for climate change in our public policies and behaviors. Last month, March, ranked as the second-warmest March in global records dating back to 1850. In SWVA, we had 3 days (Apr. 15, 16, and 18th) that went over 90º, and we’ve had a prolonged drought (rain is forecast, maybe some relief). Almost two-thirds of the lower 48 states are in drought conditions – unusually high for late April, and has been worsening, impacting us, the Southeast, High Plains,, and a lot of the West. The same states had over 530 tornadoes reported so far this year, according to the Storm Prediction Center . On one day, April 4, there were three dozen tornadoes in seven different states. All this is the face of climate change, whose direction is toward more extreme weather and a warmer world . That is the science.
As a father and grandfather, I wonder what future we are creating for coming generations. It angers me that my federal government blatantly disregards this science, and all science for that matter, as all the members of the National Science Board were recently fired. The NSB is, supposedly, an independent governing and advisory board of the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Then there is the warmongering. The February 28th attack by Israel and President Trump on Iran has gone on for over two months, killing thousands of people and injuring more, mostly non-combatants, including hundreds of children. Schools, bridges, medical facilities, and some 140 historical and cultural sites across Iran have been damaged by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, including UNESCO World Heritage sites and museums. In Lebanon, over 50 villages have been largely destroyed, creating over 1.2 million refugees, 20% of Lebanon’s population.
And of course, the bombing and the fires pollute the earth and the air and intensify climate warming. The Administration pursued the illegal Iran war despite own intelligence agencies saying that Iran posed no imminent threat to us. Regardless, Israel and its U.S. lobby got its way with our President and the killing and destruction seem far from over.
I’ll end with kudos to Sen. Tim Kaine for his efforts in Congress to pass a Wars Powers Resolution and for his support of Sen. Bernie Sanders bill to end military aid to Israel. We’ve given Israel $21.7 billion in military aid in the last two years. I hope our neighbors in SWVA will ask the candidates for national office to prioritize addressing climate and ending wars. We need to stop arming Israel, to condemn Israel’s 75-year apartheid treatment of Palestinians and to end the occupation of Gaza. Justice for all is the only path to peace in the Middle East. People there deserve to live without fear of violence, hunger, or displacement.
-Michael L. Bentley, Ed.D.
Salem
