Will my generation be safe?

Editor, The Times:

My name is Molly, and I go to Chief Sealth High School. A class I’m taking called Global Leadership is teaching me a lot about climate change, and the more I learn, the more scared I get [“Climate policy we can afford,” Opinion, Paul Krugman syndicated column, Dec. 8]. I’ve been looking to the convention in Copenhagen as a sign of hope, as something to combat this growing claustrophobia and panic. And yet I continue to see President Obama, America’s own visionary, play down the threat.

I know adults think it’s easy for kids to want radical things because we may not have jobs or cars or mouths to feed. But this is really our battle. My generation is the one that’s going to experience the major consequences of our predecessors’ carelessness.

I can watch the ocean begin to swallow the island and people of Kiribati, and I can watch the search for drinkable water become desperate for people in Bangladesh as their own sea level rises. When I learn these things I feel guilt, I feel helpless, and I feel like we’re next.

I know a common perception of teenagers is that of desensitized human shells. But we stay up at night, wondering if we’re on the edge of an apocalypse.

I can’t be in Copenhagen. I don’t have the power to change the world just by eating vegetarian and taking the bus. I need to know that the powers of the world care about me and my future. I need our world leaders to step up to their responsibilities, and lead our world to a sustainable future.

— Molly Freed, Seattle

‘The Wizard of Oz’ and the Earth’s rising temperature

In the classic movie “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy and her friends see a little man behind a curtain madly manipulating instruments. When the wizard realizes the little man has been spotted, he thunders, “ignore the man behind the curtain.” Too late. Dorothy and her friends realize the wizard is a hoax [“Copenhagen talks begin today in stormy climate,” page one, Dec. 7].

Advocates of global warming recently had e-mails published that admit they have been manipulating data, ignoring and suppressing data that doesn’t support their preconceived conclusions, and generally cooking the books. They systematically try to silence those who question them through lies, ridicule and outright intimidation.

It turns out global warming is a huge hoax, that has nothing to do with climate change. It is designed to promote a social agenda and extort trillions of dollars from the citizens of the world through fear.

The response of the biased mainstream media is to try to ignore and cover up the content of these e-mails. They tell the public, “ignore the man behind the curtain,” but it is too late.

The ugly truth is that global warming — or climate change, or whatever one wants to call it — is a left-wing socialist hoax.

— Gerald D. Cline Jr., Seattle

Climategate: the global climate controversy

Conspiracy theorists are like suicide bombers — loud and dramatic — but there are only a few of them, and they are soon forgotten by all but those they injure [“Hacked e-mails heat up Capitol Hill,” News, Dec. 3].

In the case of Climategate, the conspiracy theorists are wearing WMD and may injure us all. They’re generalizing a few pieces of doctored data in an attempt to impede the entire sustainability movement.

While it may be true that a few scientists in the U.K. have manipulated data, and while it may or may not be true that the climate is warming, what is crucial to realize is that both climate-change science and Climategate are red herrings, distracting us from specific, vital issues that threaten humanity.

Whether in climate change humankind has created a monster or a myth couldn’t matter less. Beyond the issue of global warming, readily verifiable facts show we’re running out of fish, forests and fresh, clean water.

If we continue to abuse the Earth, we in the developed world will certainly encounter a drastic decrease in the quality of our lives, while witnessing the excruciating deaths by starvation and poisoning of hundreds of millions in developing regions.

— Galen Sanford, Covington