By STEPHEN J. MOSIER
Los Alamos

In response to ‘The Time To Act Is Now!’ published April 4, 2024 (Link)

If the County truly wishes to reduce waste, it could start with its contract with Cascadia in regards to our Climate Action Plan. The nearly-empty Council chambers certainly do not attest to the community agreeing with their assessment that climate change poses an existential threat to our community. This is understandable, given that the assertion is patently ridiculous.

There is no possible worst-case scenario for Los Alamos in terms of climate change which would be worse than the costs of the mitigation efforts Cascadia proposes. Even worse, they describe those efforts as “impactful”. There is nothing, I repeat nothing, that can be done in our county which will have any measurable impact on global climate trends. We could all disappear off the face of the earth and the planet would never notice.

The argument then moves to the idea that we must set an example for others to follow. The US has been a global leader in reducing GHG emissions for 15 years yet total emissions continue to grow. The delusion that what we do in Los Alamos will make a difference is ridiculous.

What Cascadia is calling on us to do is engage in expensive virtue-signaling. There is not even a guarantee that there will be an overall decrease in global GHG emissions as a result of our efforts. Cascadia merely presents pre-packaged “solutions” (my favorite is “supporting local food systems”) without demonstrating any net global benefit.