To the editor:

Congratulations to Mayor Boog Highberger and the Lawrence City Commission for their action in the March 7 meeting to endorse and sign the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement. With this action, the city of Lawrence has pledged to take tangible steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make the environment more safe for all of us.

Climate change has become one of the dominant critical issues of our time. In June 2005, the national science academies of the United States, England, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, Brazil, China and India issued the following joint declaration: “The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action.”

These leading scientists further ask us to “recognize that delayed action will increase the risk of adverse environmental effects and will likely incur greater cost.”

Where the Bush administration has failed us by its rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, many U.S. cities have refused to remain complacent. Lawrence has joined with 210 other U.S. cities and 141 other nations in recognizing that now is the time for action to reduce energy waste, make our air cleaner to breathe and save financial resources simultaneously. Who can argue with goals such as these?

It’s curious that the Journal-World did not give attention to this significant action of the City Commission. We can be proud of our city for leading the way on an issue which is likely to be with us for a long time.

Neal Malicky,

Lawrence