As a sportsman I see the Environmental Protection Agency setting the first-ever national limits on climate-disrupting industrial carbon pollution as essential to protecting our outdoor heritage.

Changing climate conditions are reducing big game populations, stressing coldwater fish, threatening waterfowl, and turning our beautiful great lakes into pea soup by increasing harmful algal blooms.

Time after time, we’ve heard industry critics predict doom ahead of landmark conservation protections — from the creation of the National Parks to the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act to confronting acid rain. Every time they whine, but every time these kinds of protections prove essential to having clean air, clean water, vibrant wildlife, and healthy communities.

I ask our elected officials this: with all the talk of patriotism, what is more patriotic then protecting the physical space that is America? I love America.

I love to fish its waters; I love to hunt in its fields; I love to breathe clean American air.

These new carbon pollution limits are a huge next step in allowing my future children to be able to do the same.

 

Christopher Maxie

Columbus