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Turn Your Ignition Off for the Polar Bears
Dear Editor:
The Arctic Ice Cap is melting, and polar bears are drowning. This past week the U.S. Department of the Interior proposed to designate the polar bear as a threatened species. If global warming is left unchecked, ice-free Arctic summers could be a fact of life later this century, and possibly in as little as three decades. Goodbye, Polar Bears!
What can we do about it? With apologies to Jonathan Swift, I have a modest proposal. Turn off your cars when you’re not in them. As a regular at Pete’s Hometown Grocery, it is quite common to find several driverless cars running when I pull into the parking lot. This is a regular occurrence in all seasons. The cars are left running anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes, sometimes longer. This behavior is repeated all day long, all over town, and in our very driveways.
With gas prices being what they are, this is foolhardy. With the environment under siege, this is irresponsible. Conservatively, you are running your car for one half hour a week, two hours a month, twenty-four hours a year with no one in it.
Please, turn off your cars. Do it for your wallet. Do it for the environment. Do it for future generations. Hey, do it for the polar bears!
Ray Fitzgerald
Cold Spring
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