To the Editor:
Re “Trump Resisters Draft Playbook in Case He Wins” (entrance web page, June 16):
The resistance to a possible second Trump administration is essential. The efforts outlined, from drafting lawsuits to stockpiling abortion treatment, spotlight the extreme risk that Donald Trump poses to American democracy.
You quote Joanna Lydgate, the chief govt of States United Democracy Heart, as saying, “Trump has made clear that he’ll disregard the regulation and check the boundaries of our system.” That isn’t fear-mongering; it’s a practical evaluation primarily based on his previous actions and present rhetoric.
The coalition of progressive activists and former Republicans getting ready to withstand him exhibits the widespread recognition of the hazard he represents. The truth that we should put together for the potential authoritarian actions of a former president exhibits how fragile our democracy is.
The preparations being made will not be nearly opposing Mr. Trump; they’re about defending the very ideas upon which our nation was based.
Aarya Rajesh
Plainfield, In poor health.
To the Editor:
The pursuit of happiness has turn into difficult for me. I learn the information and really feel hopeless. Now in my 80s, I see in myself for the primary time ongoing nervousness, melancholy and repulsion. I can barely say out loud the phrases “Donald Trump.”
However at this time your journalists delivered to my consideration that we have now vibrant folks working collectively to save lots of us from some terrible instincts and the bewildering ignorance of a robust man adopted by a robust variety of folks.
This story is necessary. It brings hope.
Jodie Goldberg
Louisville, Ky.
To the Editor:
I used to be heartened to learn concerning the contingency planning amongst Donald Trump opponents within the occasion that he’s elected once more. However it additionally brought on me to surprise if anybody is planning for a way to reply to one other nice hazard — the prospect of widespread violence following the election.
Based mostly on his previous conduct we are able to make certain that Mr. Trump will contest the result if he loses. And if the election is shut, as appears seemingly, it’s a very good wager that he’ll once more name on his supporters to “cease the steal.” I worry that can lead to one other Jan. 6, solely on a extra large scale and never simply in Washington, D.C.
I hope that individuals in authorities are desirous about this chance, and the way greatest to reply to it.
Jeffrey Bendix
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
A New Nuclear Risk
To the Editor:
Re “Local weather-Minded Billionaire Makes a Guess on Nuclear Energy” (information article, June 13):
Your article about Invoice Gates’s new nuclear reactor challenge in Wyoming didn’t point out that, opposite to widespread perception, the gasoline the reactor requires can be utilized to make nuclear bombs.
In an article printed this month within the journal Science, we and two extra co-authors focus on how the U.S. authorities has recognized because the Fifties that one of these gasoline, known as high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), is weapon-usable, however has allowed it to be exported in portions restricted to nicely beneath the tons of of kilograms wanted for a bomb.
Mr. Gates’s reactor, nonetheless, would require tens of tons of this gasoline over its lifetime — sufficient for dozens of weapons. Many different new reactor sorts at the moment proposed for international deployment additionally would require dangerously massive portions of HALEU gasoline.
Home and worldwide requirements for safeguarding HALEU from diversion by states or theft by nonstate actors haven’t saved tempo with these developments and incorrectly assume that HALEU gasoline — even in massive portions — can’t be used for bombs with out additional enrichment.
If steps will not be taken to strengthen safety necessities at house and overseas, Mr. Gates’s reactor and lots of others may carry grave new threats to worldwide safety.
Richard L. Garwin
Edwin S. Lyman
Frank N. von Hippel
Dr. Garwin is an I.B.M. fellow emeritus and designer of the primary hydrogen bomb. Dr. Lyman is director of nuclear energy security for the Union of Involved Scientists. Dr. von Hippel is professor emeritus of public and worldwide affairs at Princeton College. All three males are physicists.
The Risks of Photo voltaic Geoengineering
To the Editor:
Re “Experiments to Artificially Cool the Earth Are Getting a Main Backer” (information article, June 11):
You report that the Environmental Protection Fund is planning to spend thousands and thousands to advance analysis on photo voltaic geoengineering. The announcement got here mere days after the Metropolis Council in Alameda, Calif., voted unanimously to close down the biggest photo voltaic geoengineering experiment within the nation.
There couldn’t be a extra harmful distraction from the pressing work of lowering fossil gasoline emissions than geoengineering; the environmental neighborhood ought to reject it outright.
The potential negative effects of photo voltaic geoengineering applied sciences are terrifying. For instance, they might lower rainfall to the Amazon, additional erode the ozone layer, and cut back monsoon rains over massive parts of Asia and Africa, resulting in drought and famine.
Whatever the form of analysis that the Environmental Protection Fund is proposing, significant testing is feasible solely at a really massive scale, which is neither protected nor humane. On a small scale, impacts are indistinguishable from regular temperature and climate variations.
The idea that people can management nature for our personal ends with out penalties is precisely the kind of considering that led humanity to the present local weather disaster. Any step towards photo voltaic geoengineering is a step within the incorrect route.
Benjamin Day
Boston
The author is senior local weather and power justice campaigner for Associates of the Earth.
Gaza Protests in Brussels
To the Editor:
Re “In Belgium, a Extra Peaceable Tackle the U.S. Pupil Protest Playbook” (information article, June 17):
So issues in Brussels are calm regardless of the Gaza protests, partially due to “a tiny campus Jewish neighborhood that has chosen to not confront protesters regardless of discomfort over among the protests.”
That will work for now within the anti-Israel neighborhood the place they reside, however it’s emphatically not the tactic for Jews worldwide. The lesson discovered from the Holocaust and the lesson nonetheless being taught within the present-day tsunami of antisemitism is to talk up, at all times.
Nancy Lederman
New York
A Tribe’s Whale Hunt
To the Editor:
Re “Tribe Wins U.S. Consent to Hunt Grey Whales Off Washington Coast” (information article, June 14):
Whereas the Makah traditions must be revered, the tribe’s proper to hunt whales should be weighed in opposition to the whales’ proper to reside, the appropriate of most of us to treasure and defend their lives, and the appropriate of society to impose animal welfare requirements, which it appears unlikely the normal harpoon hunt can meet.
Let’s do not forget that the Makah can select to let their custom evolve and discover a completely different option to have a good time, or commemorate, their historical past of searching whales.
Karen Daybreak
Santa Barbara, Calif.
The author is the founder and director of DawnWatch, an animal advocacy nonprofit.
