Oil production

One of the greatest threats to the future of life on earth is the extraction of oil. As the recent Associated Press article “Why boosting production of Venezuela’s ‘very dense, very sloppy’ oil could harm the environment” noted, environmental experts warn that we should leave it in the ground.

Expanding Venezuelan oil production would accelerate greenhouse gas emissions, particularly methane, which is released at six times the global average during extraction and refining operations. Increased oil production contradicts global climate commitments and diverts resources from nations most vulnerable to warming impacts.

Extracting more oil also means more access by petrochemical companies to the raw materials used to make plastics, which those companies are increasingly turning to as the burning of fossil fuels is phased out. Expanding plastic production is unsustainable, as microplastics now contaminate ecosystems and human bodies worldwide. Rather than extracting more fossil fuels, we should be rapidly transitioning away from oil altogether as we move to clean, green renewable energy and a circular economy.

Darcy DuMont

Amherst

Gov. Healey

Did Governor Maura Healey ever hear the phrase “The buck stops here?” I think not. Every problematic issue with her administration, i.e, (“‘Unacceptable’ Perk,” Jan. 9) is an “error” or someone else’s fault. You’re in charge, governor, stand up and take responsibility. The finger pointing is unbecoming of the Commonwealth’s chief executive.

Paul Stewart

Quincy

ICE

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created in March 2003 under The Department of Homeland Security in response to 9/11. Congress passed the rules that ICE operates under a complex framework of federal laws and policy directives. Blaming ICE agents for doing their job is not the answer, changing the rules for ICE to do their job through Congress is the answer. God Bless America.

Tony Meschini

Scituate

Venezuela

International law is a beautiful concept, but rogue states cite it only when it favors their parochial interests. Liberal faculty lounges here at home, along with a host of progressive bright lights in journalism and think tanks, apply it more consistently but still selectively, seemingly accepting that our Constitution should serve as a suicide pact when certain political winds serve conservative themes. Our progressives bend the curve of reality toward the rogue, and are nowhere close to an asymptotic function.

President Donald Trump is refashioning all sorts of things, from domestic law enforcement to a White House ballroom to the Kennedy Center and even our foreign policy. Spheres of influence is a mighty transfiguration from the decades long post-WWII internationalism we helped author back when stars were in Western eyes but crossed where rogues gambol. As our increasingly fractious reality shatters, I am reminded of A.E. Housman’s pessimism: “I, a stranger and afraid/In a world I never made.”

Paul Bloustein

Cincinnati, Ohio