The Dec. 26 editorial “America is numb to this infrastructure problem” about the disgraceful delay until 2032 for construction to start for the replacement of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was dead-on accurate. Instead of letting the state bureaucracy study and study and study this project, Gov. Wes Moore (D) should consider bold action to get the project underway a great deal sooner.
In June 2023, an enormous automobile and truck accident closed I-95, a major north-south artery in Northeast Philadelphia. If Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) had gone through normal channels, this artery would have remained closed for many months and rerouted traffic would have made driving in the area a nightmare. Instead, Shapiro appointed the state’s transportation secretary, Michael B. Carroll, to manage the construction of a six-lane replacement highway which was completed in 12 days. Carroll said that he and his staff practically lived out of a trailer for the days that it took to construct the replacement highway.
Perhaps Moore should appoint senior staffers who worked on the I-95 construction to implement some of the lessons learned in Philadelphia to the construction of a new Bay Bridge.
Lee Hurwitz, Rockville
Restore climate forecasting
The Dec. 19 news article “Trump officials will dismantle ‘global mothership’ of climate forecasting” reflected the shortsightedness of the current administration’s climate policy. First, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s goal of keeping increases in average ambient temperatures to below 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels has already been breached in many regions. This is evident from my analyses of the effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations for in situ measurements on ambient temperatures from more than 8,500 worldwide weather stations.
Thus, there is nothing alarmist about the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s climate forecasting, which is based on averaging the temperatures in different seasons for the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
Second, the oceans absorb a high proportion of the heat emission from land as well as CO2 emissions. Because of that, higher sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification are exacerbating the melting of sea and polar ice thereby reducing the albedo effects and raising the sea levels. Subsidizing renewable energy generation can help to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations to some degree.
Lastly, though scientific advances such as assessing thicknesses of glaciers via remote sensing satellites have produced large amounts of data, such measurements need to be corroborated by in situ measurements that require greater resources.
The U.S. has been a leader in compiling data on climate indicators. The Trump administration, or its successor, needs to urgently reverse these irrational cuts so that researchers can facilitate the formulation of evidence-based climate policies.
Alok Bhargava, College Park
The writer is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of Maryland at College Park.
Gender-affirming care helped my teen
Regarding Mehmet Oz and Stephanie Carlton’s Dec. 19 op-ed, “Protect America’s children from sex-rejecting interventions”:
I am the parent of a transgender teen who pursued gender-affirming care after several years of floundering inside a life-threatening mental health crisis driven primarily by gender dysphoria. Securing this care alongside embracing my child’s identity reversed a serious episode of suicidal ideation and put the entire family back on track to support his development during a crucial time. This care helped him survive and thrive.
This treatment was so critical for us that when it was outlawed by Texas in 2023 we traveled at significant expense to secure it at the kind of hospital Oz is looking to punish by eliminating federal funds.
I am not alone. There are many families like mine.
Oz and Carlton overlooked the endorsement of this practice by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, along with studies that have shown positive mental health outcomes.
If the government doesn’t want to help families like mine, the least it can do is get out of the way. At a time when much has been made of parents’ rights, I’d like to claim my own: Stop making it harder for me, and parents like me, to do the right thing for our kids.
Lisa Gibson, Wheat Ridge, Colorado
Pass on family history
I read Bob Brody’s Dec. 30 op-ed, “Every family has a history. Here’s how to hand it down.,” with great interest.
As the matriarch of my family, I’m doing my best to pass on what I know about our background. For example, as I have ended up with loads of old family photos, I used the Throwback Thursday Facebook fad to share family stories.
I turned my family stories into illustrated serials and included photos wherever possible. Each one took several months to complete.
One story was about my great-grandfather, an Irishman who deserted from the British Army at age 18 and came to the U.S. where he ended up in the Army. His career took him many places and allowed his children to become successful Americans.
Everyone has family histories worth passing on.
Kit Hope, Silver Spring
The post Cut Chesapeake Bay Bridge project’s red tape appeared first on Washington Post.
