Past the point of no return
I had to laugh when I read in Jerry Large's column that “the United States will influence the rest of the world, not so much through power or wealth, but by our ability to communicate and to negotiate” [“The future is no time to kid around,” NWThursday Dec. 3].

Maybe on some other planet, as the recent "fiscal cliff" negotiations just disproved. He also reported that, “Climate change and population growth add layers of complexity.” Regarding climate change, we're already past the point of no return.

There have been no substantive actions on actually reducing CO2 emissions, particularly as a result of the recent global recession, but also due to inertia in human society. We're not so distant from the times when solar eclipses caused mass panics.

Capital markets will be redirected only when it becomes obvious we can't keeping making things and that we need to start repairing things. The global economic dislocations required are also hardly imaginable.

–Herb Curl, Seattle