While not ignoring the many other problems facing our world, we must confront the two most potentially catastrophic dangers that imperil our civilization: nuclear war and climate change. The first, with the MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) scenario, could quickly turn our planet into a fiery inferno with literally billions of deaths.

The second, climate change, would be equally fatal, only slower. There would be global warming with melting of the arctic ice cap, rising sea levels submerging low-lying land, increasingly frequent floods, tornadoes, fertile land becoming deserts, parched forests burning, bitter warfare over dwindling arable land and fresh water, and the medical problems created by polluted water and air.

There is still time to avoid both of these two disastrous events. Unfortunately, our government is poised to pass up this opportunity. The Paris Accord on Climate Change has been endorsed by every nation except the U.S., Syria and Nicaragua. Not leading? We are not even following. Likewise representatives of over 120 nations have been meeting at the United Nations to finalize an agreement for the elimination of all nuclear weapons, the only way to guarantee no possible nuclear holocaust. Here again, the U.S. is boycotting these discussions.

Frederick R. McKeehan

Quaker Hill