Burning Questions
Thanks to Chris Gloninger for bringing light to a darkening problem: the decrease of albedo driven by a reduction in reflective natural surfaces on our overheating planet (“The Earth is Getting Darker. Literally,” April 19). One critical factor he did not mention is the excessive amount of land surface covered in black asphalt, which absorbs much radiant heat. We need to dramatically reduce our CO2-intensive bad habit of driving cars, and rip up much of this pavement and replace it with greenways for public transportation, bicycling, and pedestrians. The Dutch have done this with remarkable results — cooler and quieter cities that are better able to absorb the higher volumes of rainfall that come with climate change.
Alan Wright
Roslindale
Windmills won’t bring back winter snow. We keep pretending the problem and the cure is carbon. Nonsense. The problem is that we cut down the forests and put in roads, parking lots, lawns, and shingle roofs. We create local heat sinks, regardless of any world carbon problem. And you can see the difference all around us, in relatively unspoiled towns such as Boxford, or Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, and isolated towns in Western Mass., where these areas are still able to support hemlock and spruce trees. Areas with more roads, houses, parking lots, lawns, and roofs — areas with more development — become warmer, permanently. Windmills won’t avoid manmade heat sinks.
Jeff Kevorkian
Middleton
Not only does land have a lower albedo when it is not snow- or ice-covered, so do the oceans. The dramatic loss of polar sea ice is a major reason why the Arctic is warming much faster than lower latitudes.
lnmonster
posted on bostonglobe.com
And yet POTUS turns back the clock on all efforts and intentions to slow down and alter the decline and impacts. Tragic beyond comprehension.
daisy1
posted on bostonglobe.com
What New England states do to reduce or mitigate global warming is certainly helpful, but it doesn’t necessarily have a meaningful effect on New England snowfall, snowpack resilience, winter icing, and ice out. It’s bigger than New England. A lot bigger.
EW Piper
posted on bostonglobe.com
The Searchers
Annalisa Quinn’s story, “The Forever Search,” was amazing (April 26). In all the talk about Mass. and Cass, it is far too easy to forget that these are mothers, brothers, fathers, daughters, and sons. She brought it all together in a way that was respectful and empathetic.
Bill Callahan
North Andover
I felt like I was there with the writer and the family searching for their drug-addicted loved ones. I viscerally felt the frustration and desperation of the relatives journeying to the edge of Mass. and Cass. And I cheered when one of the moms got her son into recovery. I wish that all families of addicts could get such good news.
Joan Axelrod-Contrada
Northampton
Homelessness is a serious public issue in its own right. Boston — and for that matter, Massachusetts — needs to support treatment on demand. Recently on Beacon Hill, the House voted to set aside $4 million for addiction recovery, but the Senate hasn’t agreed. Addiction is a disease; nobody wakes up and says, I want to go live at Mass. and Cass. All Boston businesses and nonprofits should be required to have vending machines stocked with Narcan. We need a public ad campaign urging everyone to refrain from using words such as junkie, addict, et cetera — it adds to the stigma. We must do much better for them and for their families.
David Gleason
Mashpee
No simple answers. Anyone who thinks there is hasn’t lived through the frustration and hopelessness that addiction brings.
OPlease
posted on bostonglobe.com
There are few pieces of writing, and this is one of them, that encompass the great tragedy of addiction and how wide and sorrowful the effect is.
BostonIsReallyGreat
posted on bostonglobe.com
The normalizing of open drug use isn’t helping, it’s further harming and causing a dangerous situation for all in the community.
stiller
posted on bostonglobe.com
The belief that people need to “earn” safe housing with their sobriety is why people remain in this hell, along with their families. The research is crystal clear on the effectiveness of housing first policies: Housing first keeps everyone safe.
dkowen
posted on bostonglobe.com
It’s a sad state of our times when the only available help for the families of drug addicts is jail. To add to their burden, [that] a public defender then guilts the sister for wanting her twin to stay in jail so that she might have a chance of sobriety says it all.
ZarinaWins
posted on bostonglobe.com
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