Letters: Transition to renewables is urgent; Lottery partnership is damaging

Transition to renewables is urgent

We’ve all read some version of the short-sighted complaints about the subsidies the renewable energy industry is receiving and the ecological damage it supposedly causes.

It is not hyperbole to say that no industry has had a greater adverse effect on our planet than the fossil fuel industry. All over the world, wherever they have been, they have left a legacy of degraded air, land and water resources.

What’s worse, fossil fuels are the driving force behind the global warming that is causing the extreme weather events, devastating communities, causing mass extinctions, and making our planet unlivable for wildlife and people.

Some lament the subsidies renewables are getting. Renewables get chicken feed compared to what coal, oil and gas companies receive.

According to the International Energy Agency, fossil fuel handouts have reached a global high of $1 trillion in 2021. Here in our country, taxpayers dole out $20 billion per year to this enormously profitable industry.

According to the latest science, we are in the midst of the sixth great extinction crisis. Nearly every species of plant, insect, fish and wildlife is under threat from a rapidly warming planet. They simply cannot adapt quickly enough.

In order to avoid the worst of projected ecological catastrophes, we need to transition to clean, made-in-America, renewable energy as fast as possible. Yes, utility-scale, solar and wind do take up some land, but when you understand the catastrophes transitioning to renewables will help us avoid, we really have no choice.

Lottery partnership is damaging

I greatly oppose Penn State’s partnership with the lottery. It does great harm to people and communities.

Hospital gown decency

Part of John Kasun’s recent article in an area newspaper about decency with regard to hospital gowns struck a longstanding grievance with me. Since 1980, I have felt that any designer of a hospital gown where a patient did not have to worry about decency would be a millionaire or more.

My dad was a schoolteacher. He was hospitalized for extensive surgery in 1980 at a hospital near State College. He was so upset with his hospital gown that he wrote a letter to the hospital’s board of trustees. The trustees were so bowled over by his letter that copies were made and posted on every floor of the hospital (my mother was a registered nurse at this hospital and was extremely surprised/mortified until very positive feedback came her way). Sadly, nothing changed.

My experience with hospital gowns is that I am amazed at the reuse of these gowns so many times. As a result, their initial flimsiness continually worsens.

A possible solution is to discard all overused hospital gowns and to suggest that manufacturers place 2-3 snaps on them in the back (top, middle, bottom or middle, back, etc.). I know that this would need to be pursued by the hospital’s board of trustees to manufacturers, but I feel that this is a viable problem and solution. If weight is an issue, leave the gown unsnapped.

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, changes have not been made to hospital gowns in over 60 years; if so, it’s minimal.