This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The report on Rep. Chris Stewart chairing the House environmental subcommittee ("Utah's Stewart leads climate change hearing," Tribune, April 26) offers unmistakable proof that our nation's commitment to combat climate change has ended up in the wrong hands of an inept leader.
The mounting scientific data on climate change offers a road map we must follow if future generations are to survive on unconscionable environmental degradation. The data may not offer indisputable proof, yet Stewart resists common-sense solutions to convincing scientific implications.
Stewart oddly maintains that the followers of science are ideologues. How backward is that? The ideologue is one who dismisses evidence in favor of his point of view. The ideologue insists that science is "fallible" to further his personal agenda.
Waiting for 100 percent, foolproof evidence that climate change is responsible for epic droughts, fires, floods and storms, is singularly misguided. Stewart's biting denial of climate change warrants a public response to remove such incompetence from leadership.
The future of our children depends on our actions today. The reduction of carbon emissions and our government's investment in green energy technologies clearly point to the road map for survival.
Rev. Tom Goldsmith First Unitarian Church
Salt Lake City