THE VIEW FROM ALBANY
Assemblyman George Latimer

GLOBAL WARNING

It was in 1964, I think, when the U.S. Surgeon General first raised the spectre of health hazards associated with smoking. In those days, smoking was an essential part of adult life; as an 11-year old, I remember me and all my friends pretending we were smoking with candy cigarettes, pencils, whatever. My dad, Stan smoked, and my mom, Loretta, smoked. And then came the Surgeon General's warning. Stan stopped, almost immediately. Loretta didn't. She kept smoking.

In those days, there were ads of the doctors who smoked, endorsing the habit. There were competing arguments by different medical experts - it was bad; it was OK. In 1964, who really knew?

Over time, science trumped political science. We discovered, slowly, but surely that smoking was directly linked to heart disease, emphysema and lung cancer. Science told us that second-hand smoke was dangerous. The "warning" of 1964, after 40 years, became an acknowledged fact.

Ultimately, the society, the government, took action to discourage smoking.

Stan stopped. He lived to be 83.

Loretta did not; she smoked until age 69, when she had a severe angina attack. Then she finally stopped. But it was too late. She died at age 74. Nine years difference. Nine less years of my Mom in my life.

It is said that those who tell us that Global Warming is a threat to our world - triggered by the continual increase in greenhouse gases from power plants, cars, etc., - are alarmists and radicals. Some tell us that our world can absorb the economic expansion of China and India, joining Japan, Europe and North America that the exponential increase in the use of fossil fuels will not generate the melting of Arctic or Antarctic ice, the rise in the ocean sea level and so forth. Perhaps we are alarmists who think that we must better control our air quality and shape the development of our world before we face serious, if not disastrous consequences.

Perhaps Global Warming is as serious as they say. Perhaps not. But we have been given a Global Warning. We can ignore it if we choose, arguing the difference between science and political science. Or we can take the warning seriously.

If she really knew for sure in 1964 about smoking, would Loretta have treated that warning like Stan did?

Nine lost years is what I have to show for that sad circumstance. As painful, and as great as those stakes are to me and my sister, the stakes of a poor choice on Global Warming are so much higher. Let us choose wisely.

Regards,

GEORGE LATIMER
Assemblyman - 91st A.D.
Committees: Environmental & Conservation; Transportation; Labor; Government Operations; Local Governments; Insurance