I appreciate Mike Szydlowskis insightful article, Clearing the Air, in the April 15 issue of the Tribune. It was helpful to read his data revealing the relationship between the COVID-19 death rate and air pollution.

I was reminded of Adam Russell Taylors article in the May issue of Sojourners magazine, entitled We hear the planet crying, I Cant Breathe. He says: America constitutes 5% of the worlds population but burns 25% of the worlds fossil fuels. These and other trends of conspicuous corruption and abuse are driving us toward global catastrophe. He continues, Through floods such as Katrina and Harvey, we hear the planet gasping, I cant breathe. Amid out-of-control wildfires in California and Australia our planet is hollering, I cant breathe.

Each in their own way confirms what I have been thinking and saying for decades the earth cannot afford our lifestyle. Through the years I have thought of this mostly in terms of our USA consumption of fossil fuels and our extravagant, wasteful way of life. However, in recent weeks influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become very clear to me that our global human family is all in this together. Scientists are predicting that our global human family will number about nine billion by 2050. The earth is crying out against our terrible pollution and abuse of our planet home. I remember the floods of 93. Supposedly that was a once in 500 years event. How many more such record-breaking climate events have happened since then? We have experienced massive hurricanes and tornadoes, unheard of flooding, horrendous wildfires, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and now a worldwide pandemic.

As we begin thinking about reopening our economy and moving into the future, I am reminded of Lester Browns book, Plan B 3.0, written in 2008. Brown was a 1956 graduate of Rutgers University Agriculture College and then lived six months with farm families in India as a delegate of the 4-H sponsored exchange program, International Farm Youth Exchange. It changed his life. Instead of returning to the family tomato farm in New Jersey, he began working with USDA in Washington, D.C. Then, in 1974, he left USDA and founded Worldwatch Institute, and in 1997, Earth Policy Institute. He devoted his life to research and writing about world hunger and caring for the earth.

On page 266 of Plan B 3.0 he summarizes three key elements: We know from our analysis of global warming, from the accelerating deterioration of the economys ecological supports, and from our projections of future resource use in China that the western economic model the fossil-fuel based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy will not last much longer. We need to build a new economy, one that will be powered by renewable sources of energy, one that will have a diversified transport system, and that will reuse and recycle everything.

Now that COVID-19 has our attention, perhaps we can hear our beloved planet home crying out, I cant breathe. Perhaps we can turn away from denial of global warming and climate change and develop an earth-friendly, earth-saving economy for the sake of our children and grandchildren and all the other creatures who call earth their home.

Please God. Let it be so.

Cleo Kottwitz, Columbia

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Letter: The Earth can't breathe - Opinion - Columbia Daily Tribune