South Platte Sentinel Wednesday, May 4, 2016 Page 8 OpinionLetter

Light the way to a cure! Give a gift to the American Cancer Society and Keep the fi re of Hope burning with a luminaria in memory of someone lost to cancer, in honor of someone still fi ghting, or in special recognition of someone who has beaten this disease. Complete and return this form to the address below.

Enclosed is my Gift of $_________________ which will light a luminaria during the luminaria ceremony at the Relay for Life of Logan County.

Date: Saturday, June 4 Time: 9:00 p.m.

$10.00 Suggested Donation

Please indicate In Memory, In Honor of, or In Gratitude of

Name: ___________________________________ M H G

Name: ___________________________________ M H G

Name: ___________________________________ M H G

Team Name: __________________________________Please make check payable to the American Cancer Society

Your donation is tax deductible.Please mail your completed form and contribution to

Relay for Life of Logan County 8221 W 20th St.

Greeley, CO 80634

IF YOU WOULD LIKE A PICTURE TO BE INCLUDED IN THE CEREMONY PLEASE EMAIL IT TO audiemix@q.com

by May 31, 2016For questions please contact Audrey at 970-520-9145

www.relayforlife.org/loganco

Name: _________________________________________________

Address: _______________________________________________

City: ______________________ State: _____ Zip: _____________

Phone: ( )____________ Email: ____________________________

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Editor: A recent letter to the editor in the South Platte Sentinel from Shale Singletary advocated people become vegan to slow climate change. However, just not consuming animal products would do little to affect the alleged damage to the climate. So, it would seem logical that in order to stop the effects animals have on the climate, we must eliminate them. This would not only include cattle, sheep, swine, poultry and other domestic animals, but also wildlife, such as bison, deer, antelope, elk, black rhinos, elephants and any other animal that emits methane as a by-product of digestion. In other words, wholesale extinction of most animal species. This is absurd! Deeper thinking and assessment of the role of animals would reveal that most of the data that was used to project the negative impact animals (domestic livestock in particular) supposedly have on the environment, would show it was obtained from decades old

studies and ignores the signifi cant advances made in animal science that have been made in effi ciencies of growth and feed conversion. It is also known that grazing animals actually increase the depth and speed that plant carbon is stored in the soil, due to the trampling effect of putting plant material in contact with soil, allowing macro and micro-organisms to decompose the carbon and mineralizing it, making it available for plants to utilize. In grasslands, the proper grazing of grass and forbs cause the stooling of the plant leaves, which increases the growth and also the intake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Grazing animals also remove excess biomass that is susceptible to burning. The amount of pollutants and carbon dioxide released by a single wild fi re surely exceeds that of hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep. Livestock, such as cattle and sheep, are able to provide a tremen-dous amount of high quality protein and energy for human consumption through the conversion of low

Grazing animals actually help, not hurt, the environmentquality protein and energy provided by grasslands and forests. Grass and forage fed livestock are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids. In fact, grass fi nished lamb is known as the “land salmon” due to the high omega-3 content of the meat. If animal sourced protein and energy was eliminated and we were dependent on only plant sources for nutrition, we would have to convert millions of acres of fragile land from an ecological sound cover to tilled land. It has been shown that each time tillage is performed on soil, a cloud of carbon dioxide is released as the carbon stored in the soil is exposed to air and oxidized. No-till farming practices reduce this effect, but it has other limitations and cautions as well. Other negative consequences we face if the livestock industry were eliminated, is the tragic loss of jobs and incomes that rural communities, such as Sterling, depend on. Not only are we talking about the obvious loss of livelihood by the farmers and ranchers of this community, but also the livestock sale barns, veterinarians, livestock haulers, livestock packing plants and food processors. All of this is predicated on the

assumption that human activity is causing global warming or climate change. However, even the most casual student of earth science knows that throughout the eons of years that planet earth has existed, the climate has gone through multiple changes of extreme heat that caused only burrowing animals to survive, to extreme cold that had much of the earth’s surface covered in ice. It has been revealed that what has been dubbed “climate gate,” where the British researchers referred to in Shale Singletary’s letter, have falsifi ed, revised and omitted data that did not conform to the model they developed to show human activity was the cause of climate change. In fact, at least one study found that instead of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere preceding atmospheric temperature increase, they found that increase in temperature occurred a hundred or so years prior to the increase in carbon dioxide. The reverse of

cause and effect global warming advocates claim. Former NASA researcher John L. Casey writes in his well-docu-mented book “Dark Winter” that the sun is causing a 30-year cold spell and that it is actually solar cycles of sun spot activity that have the most profound effect on our climate. He has shown with an over 90% accuracy from historical data, there are at least three different solar cycles that occur and there is a corresponding change in the earth’s climate. This is in contrast to the models that climate change fear mongers have attempted to develop, who have to constantly change their models to try to make it match with what has actually happened when it doesn’t match what they have attempted to predict. So, for someone to advocate that everyone needs to convert to veganism to stop climate change is completely unjustifi ed. Mike Thayer Sterling

DeLay to speak at LCCOC The Logan County Citizens’ Oversight Committee (LCCOC) will meet on Mon., May 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the Sterling Public Library in Centennial Square. Re-1 Valley Superintendent Jan DeLay will attend the meeting to discuss budget cuts and answer questions about school district issues. Jim Leh will also present the monthly Ambulance Report and there will be continued discussion of property clean-up issues. Anyone wishing to suggest future topics for discussion can e-mail lccoc2011@gmail.com or “like” the LCCOC on Facebook at Logan County Citizens’ Oversight Committee.

The LCCOC is in its fi fth year of hosting informational meetings.