Kenneth Burke’s column on this page on Feb. 11 reveals that massive amounts of methane are being released in subarctic regions, and this will make it impossible to keep climate change in a manageable range (“Insight: Where’s our Pearl Harbor moment on climate change?“). And yet, the Republican Party still supports subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, and burning more of their fuels. Simply put, fossil fuel lobby money has corrupted our political system, and it could destroy our children’s lives.

The fossil fuel industry has been masterful at feeding us misinformation, getting us to deny climate change so they can sell more oil. And they have successfully funded climate change deniers to control our government. Please forgive us for voting for these leaders. We would not have harmed our children this way if we had not been misled by people we trusted. But we won’t be fooled again!

And what can we do about it? Write to your political representatives, particularly our only Republican, Sen. Susan Collins. She understands climate change and she could lead the Republican Party away from the suicidal path they have us all on.

Tell our political representatives to support bills that have been ready to go for years, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We also need to research how to reduce the greenhouse gas that is already in the atmosphere. Please do it now. Tomorrow is too late.

Richard Thomas

Waterville