MAILBAG:

As your last week’s front-page report (“Measures fail, plans sought,” May 21 to 27) demonstrated, Republican legislators just don’t listen. They hear only what they want to hear. When we voted down those idiotic propositions it was because they merely shifted funds from one needed state service to another.

Here’s the message: Raise taxes and provide our kids with an education, our citizens with protection. As President Lincoln would and did say, raise the taxes in a graduated fashion: Let those who get the most from our state, like highly paid Republican legislators and those who bribe them, pay the most in support of their country.

Phillip Good

Huntington Beach

Buying carbon offsets is shell game: conserve

Regarding “Gonna be another hot one,” (April 23 to April 29) I would like to add the word “maybe.” Along with predicting earthquakes and volcano eruptions, the fine art of meteorology is at best, a guessing game.

A good part of the time, I think I would hang my head in shame if I were in the business of weather forecasting. I do, however, agree with Lou Murray’s dire predictions regarding climate change and the effects of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

One sure-fire (no pun) way to offset our carbon footprint is to stop the building of the Poseidon desalination plant, or the Poseidon Project, as it’s called these days. Carbon is released when energy is used to desalinate ocean water.

The Poseidon Project will be the largest energy using, carbon-producing plant in Southern California. It will use enough energy to provide 35,000 homes with electricity. The people associated with this project will talk about “carbon offsets.”

Folks, buying carbon offsets is a shell game. The easiest, cheapest way to manage our current water problem, (and we don’t really have a water problem in Huntington Beach) is to conserve. We have done very, very little in this area. Desalination should only be considered when all other alternatives have been exhausted. It is the most expensive, energy-intensive, and environmentally destructive process used to produce water.

Conservation is something everyone can participate in every day and it doesn’t cost you a dime. Do your part.

Merle Moshiri

President

Residents for Responsible Desalination

Huntington Beach

Columnist heartens godson and family

Words will never express how badly our nation need more people like Chris Epting (“A journey to find Dad,” In the Pipeline, May 21 to 27) I want to simply say thank you for helping document this event for Ron and his entire family.

Ron’s dad and mother were my godparents. As a child I always told my mother that I wanted my name changed to Bill because of how revered Bill Grubbs was and still is in our family.

This was a life-changing experience for Ron, and as I told him in a recent e-mail, “You will be on my mind all week.”

I am fortunate to be part of a large, wonderful family. Two brothers married two sisters, one of each were Ron’s grandparents and the other two were mine. The blessings we have received seem unending! One of them, however, is Ron Grubbs! This has, I am sure, been a time of tremendous reflection and healing for him.

Thank you again for your story.

Phil Umek

St. Louis

There are more dangers to health than swine flu

The stark contrast between our frenzied reaction to unfamiliar hazards and our reckless tolerance of familiar ones never ceases to amaze me.

The current incidence of swine flu has captured the headlines, canceled public events, and closed dozens of schools. At the same time, we have blithely continued our consumption of meat and dairy products, which has been linked conclusively with elevated risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases that kill 1.3 million Americans annually.

But it’s not just about chronic diseases. According to the United Nations, animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse-gas emissions, leading to catastrophic floods, droughts, and sea-level rises, which threaten human survival. It uses more fresh water and dumps more deadly wastes into our water supplies than all other human activities combined.

Each of us has a shared responsibility for our society’s health and welfare. The best time to exercise this responsibility is on our next trip to the supermarket, where we can explore the rich variety of meat-free and dairy-free ready-to-eat frozen dinners, veggie burgers and dogs, lunch “meats,” and plant-based cheese, ice cream, and milk. Helpful transition hints and recipes galore are available at www.tryveg.org and www.chooseveg.org.

Henry Redfield