Poisoning the Earth

I am writing in response to Dorothy Lewis’ letter (June 6) concerning President Trump’s pulling the United States out of the Paris Accord.

The amazing pictures sent back to us on Earth by the Apollo astronauts illustrate vividly why our futures depend on trying as hard as we can to live up to the hard-won goals of that accord. Our blue planet has no national boundaries, no visible fences. Clouds cover lands and oceans; winds blow with no regard to artificial barriers. The entire atmosphere upon which we depend for life looks like the thin rind of an orange – and it surrounds the entire planet.

We in Maine have been at the mercy of pollution we did not create because our winds don’t stop at the state lines; what happens in Ohio or Arizona does not stay in Ohio or Arizona. We breathe in the pollutants generated by coal-burning power plants to our west and south. The Paris Accords are guided by the truth that the actions of one nation — be that the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Kenya or China — affect the living conditions of us all.

There is no possible way to “make America great again” without controlling the poisoning of this planet on which our shared existence depends,

Silver Moore-Leamon, Auburn