Living in Thailand for the first 13 years of my life, I know what pollution looks like. Despite being a small country, Thailand polluted our air as much as 4 million tons per year. Walking the street in Thailand, you could see people wearing masks to protect themselves from polluted air.
America is known by the rest of the world to be the champion of innovations since the beginning. We are the ones who find cures to many deadly diseases that affect the rest of the world, making other countries follow our lead. But we are behind in playing our part to make the world livable in the future.
A United Nations panel of scientists gives us 12 years to cut the fossil fuel emission in half in order to limit the catastrophic effects of global warming. The horrific fire in California or a devastating hurricane in Florida is no accident. It’s the Earth signal telling us that we have to do something.
The U.S. transportation system is the number-one polluter of greenhouse gases. Transportation alone is responsible for more than 2 million tons of these deadly gases in the sky every year.
We can start by ensuring that Lane Transit District is committing to having 100-percent electric bus fleets by 2035.
A cleaner future is possible. Lane Transit District has the opportunity to be an environmental champion leading the entire state of Oregon to 100-percent emission-free future.
William Tongsiri, Eugene