海角大神

Readers write: Glacier memories, climate change and fossils, and Latin nouns

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Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
See what readers shared in the Aug. 5 issue.

Glacier memories

One of my favorite vacation memories is driving Glacier National Park鈥檚 Going-to-the-Sun Road with a carful of friends.聽So I was instantly struck by the July 22 Monitor Weekly article 鈥Glacier National Park ... without glaciers?

If, as correspondent Doug Struck suggests, the glaciers鈥 legacy is up to park visitors, let us hope the fast-dwindling ice fields become the 鈥渘ettlesome symbol鈥 of what we鈥檝e lost, 鈥減ricking our conscience as did the once-dying bald eagle and motivating action.鈥澛

Why We Wrote This

Letters to the editor for the August 5, 2019 weekly magazine.

Perhaps that will lead us to stop the retreat and restore the glaciers as a key link in the mountain ecosystem.聽As park visitors and citizens, we must face climate realities.

Alan Willis
Portland, Oregon

Climate change and fossils

I was disappointed to read the June 24 Monitor Weekly article 鈥How T. rex can make you think about the future,鈥 which reviewed the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History鈥檚 new fossil hall.聽

It was fine to learn of this impressive presentation of fossil remains of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.聽But to connect it to a questioning of the speed with which most scientists say climate change is happening misses the point.

The past climate changes the hall describes came about from totally natural causes.聽The present climate change that scientists are warning about is brought about by man-made carbon emissions.聽It is drastically faster and leaves mankind little time to remove carbon from the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere.

Donna Mummery
Whanganui, New Zealand

Latin nouns

Thank you to Melissa Mohr for the very clear explanation of some commonly used Latin nouns in the June 24 鈥淚n a Word鈥 column, 鈥Confused by plural nouns? Blame Latin.鈥 I found myself mentally rehearsing the alumnus/alumni categories because I think I finally understand the different uses!

I do wonder about one of my favorite TV space androids.聽Is he a collection of advanced technologies, or shall I start thinking of this singular fellow as Datum?

Suzanne Montgomery
Spokane, Washington

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