Letters to the editor for June 29
Pro-life victory, human disaster
The attack on women’s rights by the Republican Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade, bad as it is, will have a disastrous side effect that is never mentioned. Namely, it will increase America’s population growth.
At present, U.S. growth is mainly due to about 700,000 (legal) immigrants per year. ... An additional 900,000 people, babies whose births would have been prevented, will join the U.S. population each year if abortion is outlawed. These will be mostly unwanted, many to become neglected, beaten, malnourished, impoverished, homeless, abandoned and/or poorly educated children.
Regardless of what they do when they grow up, their presence will ramp up the grinding pressure that the growing human population already exerts on the ability of the Earth to maintain us all at some reasonably decent standard of living.
The symptoms of global overpopulation are everywhere. Climate catastrophes, escalating fighting and hostility, widespread hunger, unemployment, homelessness, growing waves of immigrants fleeing worsening conditions, crammed schools and roads, and the like. ...
All of us now face the challenges of cramming more, more, and ever more people into our crowded lives and communities, always at the cost of degrading our standards of living.
Stopping population growth in humane ways that honor everyone’s rights (including abortion) is possible. But to begin, we must first start talking about it.
David H. Milne, Lacey
A Green New Deal reckoning
Inflation is raging due to energy and food costs, which is itself closely tied to energy costs. Increasing interest rates does nothing to increase the refining of oil and U.S. refineries are already nearing capacity.
While President Biden (and most of us) would like to blame Putin or greedy executives, the reality is that green tech is simply not efficient enough to replace oil in many applications, especially fighting wars and moving goods around the US highway system. It does not help that oil companies have been told for years that renewable is the future. Why would they be building new refineries with this political backdrop?
The current energy crisis is a direct consequence of our own malinvested energy policies both nationally and locally. A glance at any solar atlas tells us that solar panels in Washington will never be a good return on investment, and despite extremely accommodative policy, solar is still less than 2% of our energy production. Contrast that with hydroelectric, which represents 66% of total energy as of 2020.
We can and should do more to diversify our energy sources, particularly elemental power (a.k.a. nuclear), which remains the undisputed king of efficient energy generation. A healthy ecosystem is diverse while monocultures are fragile.
Serious Green New Dealers should encourage elemental power. Reallocating inefficient home solar power subsidies to build the first new nuclear power plant within Washington state in over 30 years would be a good start, if we really care about the environment or democracy.
Forrest Wilson, Olympia
Is this how Olympia treats its first responders?
I’m a traveling nurse, who came here from the East Coast to help out with the local nursing shortage at Providence St. Peter Hospital and see your beautiful state. I wanted to share my story because it’s just so awful and I want to warn others about it.
I booked a three-month stay at an Airbnb in Olympia. We paid over $10,000 for three months. After two months without a single issue, the host tells us we have to vacate immediately, saying the building owner doesn’t want a dog there. He allowed our sweet yorkie in writing before we moved here, and had no issue for two months.
We’re middle-aged (my boyfriend is a retired army officer and I, of course, am an RN). I was distraught and confused, as he wanted us to move out of the apartment the next day and I had to go to work at 7 a.m. I pleaded for a few more days to find a place to stay and was told to vacate immediately. The host admitted it was his fault. It was so cruel and confusing.
I’m reading more and more stories like this from Airbnb. There are no protections for guests. We are staying at Joint Base Lewis McChord in a hotel until my assignment at St. Peter is complete. I just wanted Olympia to know how a nurse who came here to help was treated.
Gina Holmes, Olympia