To the editor:

The June 12 edition of the Journal-World contained reporting of a record-setting tornado season in the Midwest, record flooding in Cedar Rapids and a drought declaration for western Kansas, a condition extending across the West and responsible for a record number of wilderness fires in that area. This correlates with record atmospheric CO2 levels and record high temperatures for most of the past decade.

Perhaps it is just a coincidence that these violent extremes of weather are exactly what were predicted by climatologists’ computer models a decade ago as a likely outcome of human-caused global warming.

In the same newspaper, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce expressed outrage that the refusal of our governor to allow the dumping of an additional 11 million tons of CO2 per year into our already overcharged atmosphere might damage the “business climate” of our state. On June 14, the Saturday Column endorsed that position.

Wake up and smell the coffee! And while you’re at it, ask the chambers of Cedar Rapids, Greensburg and New Orleans how business is doing in their cities. How good will business be in western Kansas when the Ogallala aquifer, which is being drained 100 times faster than it is being replenished, finally runs out, turning that region into a desert?

We simply cannot continue to overheat and abuse the planet without paying a price, even if it is “bad for business,” and the price our grandchildren will have to pay may be more than they can endure.

Dr. Steven Bruner,

Lawrence