In his Aug. 20 Maine Compass, Orlando Delogu identified the harms of our changing climate (“Opinion: Climate change harms and benefits are not 50-50“). His list — record-breaking heat, forest fires, tornadoes and coastal storms — alas, is incomplete.

Delogu identified the cause of the harms, the global fossil fuel industry, as the “800-pound gorilla.” However, we’re all involved. Fossil fuels have made our lives easier in profound ways. We drive or fly here and there, much of what we buy comes from far away. We heat and cool our buildings, and benefit in so many ways with household and other conveniences.

Let’s face it: a changing climate is the legacy we are leaving to those who follow. When I was a child, CO2 concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere were around 310 parts per million. Now it’s about 425 and rising. The difference I consider to be my legacy. Yours too! So what’s to be done?

The Paris Agreement, signed in 2015, correctly called for reductions in emissions of all greenhouse gases. Efforts have gone into replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy worldwide. But it’ll never be enough because those gases are still warming the Earth. We need to remove them.

Last year, Sen. Collins introduced the bipartisan Carbon Removal and Emissions Storage Technologies (CREST) Act to Congress, to fund research and development of technologies to do just that. Please thank her, and ask her to fit it into the Omnibus Bill that will close this Congress.

Peter Garrett

Winslow

Citizens Climate Lobby, Foundation for Climate Restoration