What a weekend! I confessed my climate sins at the first of its kind Climate Confessional at the Center for Post-Natural History, at first Fridays on Penn Avenue Bloomfield. The climate “priest” listened to my climate worries and my friend Elizabeth’s. He absolved us, because he knows that the real sinners are the oil and gas industry, their lobbyists and the governments supporting them.

I vowed that I would try to do better by divesting from the oil and gas industry. Everyone should do the same. Then I read the book “Cheaper, Faster, Better” by Tom Steyer and offered to buy it for all my social media friends who might feel gloomy about climate change.

Overall, despite the news that Pittsburgh has some of the worst air quality, as reported in Julia Felton’s story “American Lung Association ranks Pittsburgh metro area among nation’s most polluted” (April 24, TribLive) and that it’s much harder these days to keep bee colonies alive, as reported in your article “More work needed to help bees in Pennsylvania, experts say” (June 5, TribLive), I am hopeful! If we keep objecting to the subsidies keeping oil and gas afloat, and if we make the logical decision to switch to already-cheaper, cleaner energy options, we will turn the tide.

What an inspiring challenge! Make sure you vote against anyone banking on health-destroying oil and gas. And get Inflation Reduction Act tax credits on clean-energy home improvements on the off-chance they get canceled in the fall.

Jen Bannan

Bloomfield

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