Editorial: A legal victory with complications

The Connecticut Superior Court ruling Tuesday validated State Rep. John Santanella's complaint. This is a clear win, and allows him to avoid an August 11 Democratic primary against his challenger, former town attorney Tom Tyler. Tyler can appeal, but absent that, Santanella can shift his focus to November. But a winning legal outcome is not the same as a winning narrative outcome. This was an honest mistake by the Tyler campaign, a consequence of some flawed official guidance and a decision to rely on that guidance. The court found that the Democratic registrar provided petition sheets four days before state law allowed, and that the state-supplied forms lacked a legally required statement from circulators on the number of signatures gathered — a defect that invalidated all of Tyler's petitions. The ruling also notes that there was no evidence the Tyler campaign exercised due diligence to confirm the official guidance. Connecticut election law doesn't allow for honest mista...
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Reactions to climate change on Enfield's Facebook forum


Enfield

Enfield is probably typical to many other suburban towns. It has a large number of people who see climate change as a liberal conspiracy and plot to take "control" of the economy. You can see a little of this on the Enfield community forum on Facebook. The responses to my recent post on Enfield's climate risks illustrates this to a degree. 

 It's very easy to turn a Facebook post into a name-calling festival. The admins of the community open forum do a very good job trying to moderate this risk. But the reactions to the climate change problem can be discouraging. The discussion mirrors the broader, national response. There's a paralysis on the issue and outright hostility to the science lead by President Trump. 

 This was my response on Facebook: 

The amount of C02 in our thin atmosphere is increasing at a rate that the planet hasn't seen before. We know this and we know the cause. There's nothing natural about the increase or its cause. We're doing it. Scientists have known for 100++ years that C02 acts as a heat trapping gas. You can lie to yourself about many things, but not about atmospheric chemistry. The global temperature may increase by 7 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 and that is well within the range of outcomes. 

 The oceans have been capturing much of the CO2 so far, but it's increasing the pH levels, the acidity of the oceans. This will impact the food chain. They can measure this. 

 The people who see this as no big deal, or some kind of natural event, and oppose measures to reverse direction are making a bet. They are betting that they are right. They are saying to their children that they have nothing to worry about. The evidence says that people who hold this view are not only very wrong but are reckless. 

 There's a school of thought that says humanity won't get its act together. There's a belief that the U.S., still the most powerful and scientifically advanced nation on the planet, won't muster the resolve to lead the world out of this mess. There are a lot of people who believe we're incapable -- man and womankind -- of taking the steps to do the right thing. There are some young people, and I am not kidding you, who are debating whether they should have children. They don't want to bring them into a dying world. I personally believe they are wrong. There is still hope and time. But it is time for us to look out for one another and the future. The whining and name calling and political blaming has to end.

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