OPINION:
When I sat in my fifth-grade science class in 1943, I listened to my science teacher tell us about the Earth’s relation to the sun. Dr. Sanderson told us the sun warmed the Earth and that the Earth was protected from the heat by an atmosphere. If the Earth did not rotate, the side facing the sun would burn up and the dark side would be too cold to support life.
The reason we have winters and summers is, the Earth not only rotates on its axis, it also nutates (wobbles) and the poles receive less sunlight, resulting in polar ice caps. The atmosphere is composed of gases: Oxygen supports human life; carbon dioxide, plant life. Dust and carbon particles protect us from the sun’s rays, and all are required to support life.
I don’t know what is taught in school science classes today, but there must have been some changes because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is trying to provide clean air by removing carbon dioxide and carbon particles from the air.
This year, the EPA is imposing regulations on industry to reduce carbon dioxide. Has this allowed the sun’s rays to heat up the atmosphere? Has the reduced production of carbon dioxide weakened the trees, making them vulnerable to bark-beetle infestation?
If so, the EPA must accept some of the blame for the fires that have burned our forests, claimed lives and destroyed homes.
BOB BREWSTER
Cocoa, Fla.
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