Climate: Wishful thinking won’t solve warming

Re: “Tacoma should back 100-percent clean energy,” (TNT, 12/6).

The “Local Viewpoint” article by Art Wang conveys more of the wishful thinking typical of so many climate-change zealots.

He trots out the reference to the smoke from forest fires that we on the west side of the Cascades have experienced the last two summers

But he ignores the fact that much or most of that smoke came from British Columbia — a place over which we have no control and that has had a carbon tax for ten years.

Wang also talks about how great it would be if Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii all had 100-percent clean energy by 2045. He says these states “can have a significant impact.”

Doesn’t he realize that the four of them combined account for about only 1 percent of global emissions?

That doesn’t sound like a significant reduction to me — especially considering it would take at least 26 years to accomplish.

Meanwhile, another article in the same TNT edition indicates that global emissions are projected to rise about 2.7 percent this year alone.

So while reducing our state’s emissions may sound great, what will it cost us? And what exactly would be accomplished on a global scale?