Fake Time cover, real climate issue

A recent letter to the Post Independent (“Chicken Little Hysteria,” 12/9/22) contained easily-proven falsehoods. 

The author, a frequent letter writer to local papers, quoted a bogus Nov. 21, 1977 Time Magazine cover of a penguin on an iceberg with the headline: “How to Survive the Coming Ice Age.”

That is completely fake, a photoshopped Time Magazine cover from Aug. 9, 2007 that actually featured a penguin on an iceberg with the heading: “The Global Warming Survival Guide.” 

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Climate change deniers on various social media sites have repeatedly used that fake Time cover to support their cynical, misguided, unsupportable and unscientific attempts to deny human-caused global climate change and to call those of us who accept the Science as “Chicken Littles.”

As a seven-decade-plus, real-life-experienced, educated adult who has spent his entire career in the public sector trying to mitigate the health effects of occupational and environmental hazards, I am not naive. I believe that we must do everything feasible to rapidly reduce our dependence on fossil fuel and production of greenhouse gasses. 

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This will require a lot of sacrifice that we are reluctant to face. The current path is self-destructive and irrational, as demonstrated by the unwillingness of many citizens and elected officials to deny the truth and hang on to completely false information and magical thinking in the face of a looming climate catastrophe.

Stephen Hessl, Carbondale

Editor’s note: Indeed, a Nov. 21, 2022 Associated Press article points out the fact that the purported Time magazine cover is fabricated.

Undeniable climate impact

A frequent letter writer waxes eloquent to express his disagreement with another frequent letter writer’s views (LTEs 12/4 and 12/9). He should save his alliterative eloquence to refute something not nationally and internationally acknowledged. 

The presence of human-caused climate crisis is irrefutable; no amount of deluded denial or conservative prevarication changes the facts. His letter is like trying to poeticize election denial; tiresome and depressingly uninformed.

And as to the commissioners; moving forward with them is like trying to walk with your feet in chains; chains forged with no consideration of reality.

Historian Arnold Toynbee said that “civilizations are not murdered, but commit suicide. They fail to adapt to a crisis, ensuring their own obliteration.”

Barb Coddington, Glenwood Springs

Worker-class dilemma

The Roaring Fork Valley’s difficulties with affordable housing, worker shortages, and traffic and parking congestion all rise from the concentration of wealth allowed in our current economic configuration. 

The scales of today’s “winners and losers” are tilted big time to the winners. This has not always been so. The eternal dilemma of an “Upstairs/Downstairs,” Upvalley/Downvalley world is that a landed leisure class requires a large working service class that includes education, construction and public maintenance to sustain its largely idle life style: the conundrum being, “where oh where to put them.” 

This is not an easy question to answer. Merry Solstice, nonetheless. 

Bob Porath, Meredith/Boulder

Good Red Kettle vibes

If you’re tired of hearing and reading the news today, full of heartache, division, hatred and violence, it seems easy to just walk away, feeling hopelessness and sadness. But it’s also so important to remember, in humanity, there is a great deal of goodness and hope to be found, especially during this time of year. 

Standing by a small red kettle, and ringing a very soft bell, I experience the joy of watching others doing good, being at their very best, as they give what they can, to help those in need. I feel blessed to watch the teenagers stop and give lunch or gas money, the parents who give coins to their little ones, as they place each coin — individually in the kettle and of course, refusing any help — to give to little kids just like them but in need. 

The elderly, those without shelter, and others facing a multitude of life struggles, stop by and dig deep into their pockets to make life easier for those without. 

Yes, life can be hard, but serving those in need can be so easy. I encourage anyone with extra time this season to volunteer by contacting the Salvation Army or any one of the many organizations that help ring the bell, and “ring in” the magic this season provides! 

A golden opportunity to do good, love our neighbors, and to serve “the least of these.” Humanity at its best!

Remember, Santa’s watching!

Jamie Darien, Glenwood Springs