We must shift our energy economy away from fossil fuels

Your July 4, 2010, front page story about the serious decline in our oceans' health together with stories about the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico should raise serious concern among reasonable people.

The immediate and visible negative impacts of our over-dependence on fossil fuels are clear from the BP spill stories; however, the ocean health story is a more serious call to action.

We must enact meaningful climate legislation to shift our economy away from fossil fuels and toward sustainable energy sources.

A carbon fee and dividend bill, imposing a fee on carbon emissions and returning the revenue collected directly to the American public, would serve that purpose well. Such a system would not impose undue hardship on industry or the public, while creating American jobs.

Our Founding Fathers had the foresight to produce a Constitution designed to function for hundreds of years. We can and must honor their achievement with the foresight to shift our energy economy to one that is sustainable for a few hundred more years.

-- Jeffrey Coleman

Anchorage

Care for Alaska's waterways while you care for your lawn

Gardener Jeff Lowenfels' July 7 column, "Going green makes lawn care easier," extols the virtues of having a great lawn while reducing the time spent on it and saving water and money. This is a win-win situation for your lawn and the environment.

With a high use of chemical fertilizers (many processed using fossil fuels), we are contributing to myriad environmental problems. Runoff from chemical fertilizers into our waterways -- a given in Anchorage due to our storm-water system depositing runoff directly into our creeks -- contributes to eutrophication, which is putting excess nutrients into an ecosystem.

In our waterways, the addition of chemicals results in increased decomposition of organisms and a subsequent depletion of oxygen, harmfully impacting our resident fish populations. If you've ever seen an algae bloom, this is commonly the result of excess fertilizer runoff. Consider his suggestions, and one more thing. Please do not dump your cuttings on creek banks or into creeks. This too has similar deleterious effects on the water chemistry and creek habitat as the grass decays.

-- Cherie Northon

executive director Anchorage Waterways Council

Anchorage

Bad experience brought support

My vehicle was recently broken into and my purse was taken. I accept that I did bring this upon myself by assuming that I had hidden my purse well enough; lesson learned the hard way. This was not the only lesson to be learned from this experience. I never had a moment of anger or sadness over the broken window or the fact that the perpetrator(s) wiped out my bank account to the point of being overdrawn. I did however find myself angry that someone would do this to another person.

I have always tried my best to believe that humanity has the ability to prevail and do good simply because it is the right thing to do. This situation caused me to question if that was realistic and I was affronted with myself for this doubt.

But through this experience I have received an outpouring of support from co-workers, friends and family. It is simply amazing how one act of nefariousness could inspire kindness tenfold. That is something I can put credence in.

-- Stephanie Lenhart

Anchorage

Two wrongs don't make a right

If it's illegal for a grown adult to impregnate a 13-year-old girl, shouldn't it be at least as illegal for another adult to kill the baby without even telling the parents?

-- Dave Thomas