To the Editor:
I respect farmers, but have lost respect for the leadership of Dan Engemann, director of regulatory affairs, Missouri Farm Bureau.
His recent Guest Commentary in this paper (and probably many others), does not reflect the importance of reducing fossil fuel use. To ignore climate change is a head-in-the-sand outlook. Imagine if 125 years ago, the farmers of America had tried to stop the development of fossil fuel use over the reliable horse for transportation.
Horses annoyingly deposited visible waste on the roadway, while fossil fuels have placed invisible poisonous wastes into the soil, water, and most damaging to the climate — the air.
The result is warmer soil, warmer water, and warmer air GLOBALLY. The increase in unnatural disasters has been fueled by climate change. President Biden has restored the United States as a world leader in climate action. The people of Missouri need united leadership at every level to to avert increasing climate damage, while seriously beginning to initiate solutions.
Farm Bureau members should make their own decisions on what’s best for their families, especially their grandchildren.
Readers are welcome to view my 38-minute Climate Reality presentation on YouTube by searching Climate Change and Your Health. Although filmed over three years ago, it is somewhat dated because the disasters caused by man-made climate change have become more frequent, more damaging, and more deadly.
Gary Leabman, a climate reality leader, Hermann, Mo.
