Focus on business

To the Editor:

My name is Polly Mosloski and I am losing my job. I have worked at Payless Shoes in Fairmont for 15 years. There are about 40 other people losing their jobs. They work at Shopko. We have already lost the people who worked in the store pharmacy.

We are sad and don’t know what we are going to do. Not only are we losing our jobs, but we are losing the friendships we have developed with our co-workers.

The store closures are going to impact our communities. Many businesses are closing. I believe our elected officials need to make it a priority to work on bringing businesses into our community. As the companies leave, where are we going to work? Our children are moving out of Martin County to find employment.

I believe we need to set our priorities in order of need. Building a community center/YMCA would be nice at a later date. This is not the time.

We need to use the funds we have and any grants we can get to focus on business development and jobs. We need to have a home, food, clothing and our dignity.

Polly Mosloski

Fairmont

We should unify on this

To the Editor:

Letter-writers Phil Drietz and Kevin Moller question the threat posed by human-caused global warming.

However, in its report “Catastrophe Modeling and Climate Change,” Lloyd’s of London states that the 8 inches of sea-level rise off the tip of Manhattan increased Superstorm Sandy’s surge losses by 30 percent, and that “Further increases in sea level in this region may non-linearly increase the loss potential from similar storms.”

This document also asserts that there is conclusive evidence that climate change is human-caused.

Moreover, in its 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, the U.S. Department of Defense warns: “As greenhouse gas emissions increase, sea levels are rising, average global temperatures are increasing and severe weather patterns are accelerating. These changes, coupled with other global dynamics … will devastate homes, land and infrastructure.”

The U.S. military has expressed concern about climate change since the George W. Bush administration, and dozens of Defense Department documents on this issue can be accessed at climateandsecurity.org

It’s important to look to independent organizations such as the insurance industry and the military when evaluating the threat posed by climate change. Because they depend on scientific evidence to assess risk, they are less amenable to politicized science.

Our common values such as national security and concern for our children’s future should unify Americans on this issue. It just doesn’t make sense to make the permanent changes to the earth’s physics and chemistry we are making without looking at this closely together, across political divides, with open ears and open hearts.

I’m encouraged that the bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives. Let’s thank representatives Angie Craig, D-Minn., Ted Deutch, D-Fla., Francis Rooney, R-Fla., and their colleagues for sponsoring this bill and urge our own members of Congress to support their courageous action.

References:

o Catastrophe Modeling and Climate Change, executive summary, pg. 4, https://www.lloyds.com/media/ lloyds/reports/emergingreports/ccandmodellingtemplate.pdf

o U.S. Department of Defense 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, Chapter 1, pg. 8, http://archive.defense.gov/pubs/2014_Quadrennial_Defense_ Review.pdf

o Chronology of Military and Intelligence Concerns About Climate Change, https://climateand security.org/2017/01/12/chronology-of-the-us-military-and-intelligence-communitys-concern-about-climate-change/

o Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, https://energyinnovationact.org

Terry Hansen

Hales Corners, Wis.

How about carrots?

To the Editor:

Ahh. Springtime in Minnesota. The snow melts, the air warms up, blue sky. A long ride in the county reveals rich black farmland soil visible again.

But wait. What is that smell? Your first suspicious thought: the person sitting next to you in the passenger seat. But no, of course, not, how could you? Yech. Ish. Off to the side you spot a set of long, low-lying buildings with giant fans on the ends. Hog buildings. These house pigs. Lots of them. 1.6 million pigs annually to be exact, for Martin County.

The saying goes, “That smell, son, is the smell of money.” But, don’t you think for most of us, it just stinks to high heaven? It is the smell of stinking manure from the 1.6 million hogs. Perhaps for a small, select few the smell is the sweet smell of money — the businesses that provide the piglets then later bring the hogs to death, slaughter and bacon on our tables. Would it be possible that we could raise 1.6 million carrots instead?

Peter Engstrom

Fairmont