Fresno Bee letters: Climate change, fentanyl overdoses, gas prices and more

Climate change & farmworkers

I’m sorry to see that the Fresno County Board of Supervisors chose not to find out how climate change affects the health of the county’s most vulnerable populations.

One reason the supervisors gave was “Agriculture is at the heart of what we do.” I know during and after last year’s fires, we read that some of the most vulnerable people in the Valley were the farm workers who reaped the bounty of our Central Valley when the air was the most polluted by smoke and particulates from the fires.

It is a shame that they should be damaging their health harvesting our food while we stay safely indoors with our HEPA air filters and avoid the worst of it.

Climate change or drug overdoses

Veronica Garibay-Gonzalez’s opinion column titled “Fresno County leaders must face the reality of climate change” may be exactly what happened. The supervisors have totally understood the “reality of climate change” and concluded that it’s not that big a deal. There are more important issues on their plate, and spending thousands of dollars on “climate change” is not necessary at this time. The California Air Resources Board is doing a fine job. The supervisors should be commended for their decision to not spend money.

What item could be a “bigger deal”? How about accidental drug deaths? This is not only killing thousands in California, but those thousands are also young people. The fentanyl that is coming over the southern border is killing our residents. Overdose deaths in 2021 in California were over 6,000. In San Francisco in 2020 there were over 700 drug overdose deaths and just over 200 COVID deaths. This is an issue that is now not something that “might happen.”

Ms. Garibay-Gonzalez might extend some “justice and accountability” to something that we can all understand.

Supervisors seem really clueless

Climate change is accelerating at a more rapid rate than anticipated, so it is imperative to act now to prepare for the future.

With this in mind, I commend Mr. Luchini, director of Fresno County Department of Public Health, for being awarded a grant to gather information directly from our rural population who are most strongly impacted by climate change and who have the fewest resources to protect themselves.

These data, gathered at no cost to the County, would give a solid foundation for future plans to mitigate the negative effects of climate change when there is time and resources to do so. In turning down the implementation of this grant, the Board of Supervisors does not seem to understand where we are headed.

There is the old gas price, and today’s

The U.S. inflation calculator, 1968 to 2022 = 8.15

1968 federal minimum wage $1.60/hr (before payroll deductions) = $13.04/hr today

1968 real minimum wage about $1.00/hr (with no deductions) = $8.15 today

1968 cheapest gasoline in San Jose 27.7 cents/gallon = $2.26/gallon (with double trading stamps and a free glass with each fill-up)

Recent pump price for regular gas at Fresno Costco: $5.09 (not including member discount)

In 1968 average auto gas mileage was about 12 mpg; today it is easy to get 30 mpg, average about 28 mpg. If one wishes to drive a gas hog or in ways that waste gasoline, it's a free country.

So, in 1968 an hour’s work at federal minimum wage (I should have been so lucky) would buy 5.75 gallons of gasoline, ignoring payroll deductions and trading stamps. That 5.75 gallons would propel a car for about 70 miles on average.

Current California minimum wage = $13/hr. That $13 will currently buy about 2.5 gallons of regular gasoline, which at 28 mpg will propel an average car for about 70 miles. Yep, times sure are hard compared to the old days.

Pick standard, not daylight time

The Sunshine Protection Act is a terrible idea! Year-round daylight saving time would result in sunrise occurring after 8 a.m. for two months in the winter.

It’d be even worse in some other areas of the United States; Salt Lake City would see sunrises after 8:30 a.m. for that time period due to its position on the western edge of its time zone, and in Seattle, those post-8 a.m.. sunrises would last three months.

Sure, people don’t like changing their clocks twice a year, but what that bill would do is trade a problem for a worse one. Do you want your kids going to school in the dark? That’s exactly what happened the last time the U.S. had year-round daylight saving time, in the 1970s during the Arab oil embargo.

Why are we repeating history? The answer to not changing our clocks twice a year is to go to year-round standard time. I’d take 4:30 a.m. sunrises in June over 8 a.m. sunrises in January, hands down.

Daylight saving, dark mornings

The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved legislation to keep daylight saving time year round. On the surface is sounds like a great thing to do. No more adjusting your clock twice a year.

Wait a second. We already tried this back in 1974 because of the Arab oil embargo. Sunrise wasn’t until 8 a.m. or later in the winter. Children were hit and killed in accidents because they were walking to school in the dark.

If we keep daylight saving time year around, we need to also have our schools start one hour later. It might also give our children an opportunity to get adequate sleep so that they are better students.

Conservative needs to open eyes, ears

Jerry Jones asks: Why do Biden and the Democratic leaders want our gas prices to go sky high? [The Fresno Bee, Mar 6, 2022, “Biden, oil, and ruining the U.S.”]

I certainly hope he’s kidding. Why does anybody in their right minds even think that the president wants to purposely raise the price of gas?

Then he goes on to say that Biden and his fellow Democrats are trying to ruin the United States. If anybody tried to ruin this country, it’s none other than Trump with his huge ego and self-righteousness. He told hundreds of lies every day. He idolized dictators such as Hitler, Putin, Kim Jong-un, etc. He sided with Putin on more than one occasion and supported white supremacist groups. He was anti-democracy and even tried to reverse the presidential election results. When that didn’t work, he urged his followers to attack the Capitol building.

Mr. Jones really needs to open his eyes, stop listening to the garbage being spread by Fox News, and start paying attention to the facts.

This story was originally published April 3, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Fresno Bee letters: Climate change, fentanyl overdoses, gas prices and more."