Climate change is reshaping our wild landscapes
Durango, Colo.: “Our U.S. national parks are not just a U.S. treasure, but a world treasure,” remarked a park ranger during a recent talk I attended. More than 325 million recreation visits across all 433 National Park Service sites occurred in 2023, and the trend is rising. An estimated 15-20% of visitors (50-65 million annually) travel to our parks from other nations. They come for stunning landscapes, adventure and recreation, viewing wildlife (bison, bear, elk) in their natural habitats, and history, peace and solitude.
National parks like Yellowstone are economic powerhouses, generating nearly $100 billion annually and supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs. Foreign tourists play a key role, spending disproportionately more. Protecting these parks isn’t just an environmental priority, it’s a critical economic one. If we want to preserve these vulnerable and sensitive ecosystems, we have to address climate change. Parks in the Western U.S. are facing prolonged drought. More frequent wildfires fueled by warmer, dryer conditions threaten giant sequoias and other forests in high-elevation parks. Others are challenged by changing weather patterns that produce heavier rainfall, increased erosion and flooding. Sea level rise and coastal erosion are impacting the Everglades in Florida and Acadia National Park in Maine.
Our national park system has been responding with mitigation efforts. These help, but they aren’t enough. We need to fix the problem that’s causing the planet to warm. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses that accumulate in the atmosphere and warm the planet. All it takes is a phone call or email to your members of Congress. Encourage them to pass effective climate legislation, like a carbon fee and dividend, to preserve these treasured landscapes. Susan Atkinson
Make the fixes
Brooklyn: Newark Airport has had three incidents in two weeks because of outdated equipment. Two incidents involved planes losing contact with the control tower for 90 seconds, all because the equipment needs to be updated and the facilities need to be properly staffed. How long will you wait to upgrade the equipment? Are you waiting for a disaster to happen where people lose their lives because of lack of proper management? One, we already know the airport needs an equipment upgrade. Two, we know the control towers are short-staffed. Before a disaster happens, upgrade the equipment and only handle planes coming in and going out that you can handle based on your staffing. John De Angelo
Pulpit politics
Bronx: Re “Examining the Cuomo record” (op-ed, May 11): It is fine to have op-eds taking opposing positions on who should be mayor of NYC. I am very concerned, however, with a pastor of a church like Patrick Young providing an endorsement with the usual partisan spin. A pastor’s flock has a range of political views. The resulting divisive mixture of religion and politics is best avoided. Joe Cocurullo
Man of integrity
Brooklyn: Independent mayoral candidate Jim Walden released his plan to protect New York’s independence against federal overreach, budget cuts and Project 2025. Jim will create the NYC Freedoms Task Force, a 50-lawyer army of elite litigators, to fight unconstitutional action and to proactively ward off illegal actions and cuts meant to undermine our freedoms. Jim, a former federal prosecutor and prominent attorney, has raised $3 million to run in the Nov. 4 election under the Integrity Party. As a lifelong New Yorker who has been involved with my community board and city government, I urge you to support Walden for mayor. Robert Mascali
Masks are safe
Brooklyn: Thanks to the Daily News and hundreds of activists who voiced their objections to the Legislature, there is no mask ban or even mask restrictions in this year’s state budget. The News rightly opposed proposals to limit the use of masks (“New York doesn’t need a mask ban,” editorial, March 21) and pointed out that using the budget to push unrelated policy changes is a bad precedent. To save face, Gov. Hochul got the Legislature to agree to a minor add-on to certain charges, but New Yorkers should know that they still have the right to wear masks in stores, health facilities and on the street, in subways and on buses. Masks protect your health — and the health of people around you — from COVID and other airborne diseases, and your right to wear them is still the law. Joe Rappaport, executive director, Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled
Distinguished figure
Lakewood, N.J.: It was refreshing to see Pope Leo XIV greet his audience at the Vatican. In less than 15 minutes, he gained more respect than the Orange Buffoon could ever hope to have in his entire pitiful lifetime. There were more than 100,000 people in attendance (not fake numbers) as the pope gave them and us hope for a better world. He spoke of peace and understanding; compassion, not hate. He did not make fun of anyone, plan a parade in his honor, post a picture of himself on social media posing as the president of the U.S., or ridicule or blame his predecessor. I doubt you will see him at a golf course. No one bought him a new jet plane. He didn’t propose renaming the Vatican. We can only hope and pray that the pope’s message will become reality. He already has our respect. Frank Mongiello
Tricked for compliance
Los Angeles: MAGA Voicers, in this case Voicer Michael Ilardi, along with their MAGA party leader Donald Trump, never lose an opportunity to show how uneducated and ignorant they are — sadly, in the case of Ilardi’s letter misrepresenting the horrible fate of millions of poor Jewish souls who lost their lives in Nazi extermination camps. Holocaust victims were not lined up and, to quote Ilardi, “sent into ovens to be burned alive.” The horrific ending to the lives of those lines of people were met in gas chambers where the Nazis used carbon monoxide or Zyklon B (hydrogen cyanide gas) while their helpless victims were under the impression they were in a large shower room. Please do not be like Trump. Educate yourselves on facts and reality. Amelia Bissonette
Founding story
Brooklyn: To Voicer Chalky White: Jews immigrated to Palestine from Russia and Eastern European countries in the latter part of the 19th century and after World War I, not from England in 1948. The Zionists legally purchased their land, drained swamps, irrigated desert, developed farms and factories and provided higher-paying jobs and improved health conditions for Arabs. The Arabs had a five-to-one advantage in weapons in the 1948 war, but the Jews prevailed. Wendy Jackson
Didn’t make it
Millburn, N.J.: It’s bad enough that The News apparently can’t afford to send a sportswriter to the West Coast to cover the Yankees there. But not even to Citi Field on Mother’s Day? Pathetic. Ed Marks
Exclusive viewing
West Sayville, L.I.: The height of stupidity regarding the Mets and streaming may have been reached on Sunday: a noontime game on Mother’s Day with an opposing team, the Cubs, at 11 a.m., only available on Roku. Why are the Mets trying to force their fans into buying Roku? Why isn’t the game available on SNY, WPIX or WNYW at the same time? Why this exclusionary attitude? Why not try to reach all your fans all the time? F. Bodkin
Passé pastime
Tuckahoe, N.Y.: To Voicer Eric Mills: Thank you for your excellent, compassionate letter calling for a worldwide ban on the horrific rodeo event “calf-roping,” also known as clotheslining — chasing and roping babies by the neck, then tying their legs together. Rodeo events are all created by frightening animals. The most prevalent, bull riding, is based on abuse and lies. Bulls are trucked hundreds of miles in packed cars without food or water (don’t want them making a mess in the arena). While fans scream and lights flash, these peaceful, intelligent animals are hit, shocked with electric prods, gored with spurs, etc. to make them appear wild, then frantically buck when a strap or rope is yanked around their sensitive underbelly. Let the growing interest in the Old West not be tainted by celebrating cruelty. Several rodeo events have been banned already. As people learn about animal sentience, this miserable relic will disappear. Kiley Blackman
