This letter is in rebuttal to the op-ed in the Dec. 26 newspaper titled “United States bears responsibility for global woes.”

Does the author of said op-ed remember what happened on Dec. 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor? If Americans forget and allow our military power to decline, another Pearl Harbor is assured in the future. Especially with the weakness of the current occupant of the White House.

Our military wastes money by nature as do all government agencies. $85 billion spent on planes, tanks, arms and night vision equipment was stupidly left in Afghanistan to arm the Taliban, unless that was Biden’s plan all along.

Defense money should be spent more wisely, it is true, but a strong military is a necessary “evil” we all must pay for, in today’s world, to retain our democratic republic.

It is unfathomable anyone could believe we have a climate crisis which is more threatening to humanity than a nuclear war. No one has actually proven we have a climate crisis. To do so would require independent research, not more biased research based on manipulated data and out-right fabrications.

Anyone who reads the books “Dark Winter,” by John L. Lester, “Inconvenient Facts,” by Gregory Wrightstone and “The Climate Chronicles,” by Joe Bastardi knows the climate crisis is a hoax being perpetuated by global elitists to establish a future one-world socialist government.

Spending American money to cleanup our planet would be fruitless unless/until Russia, China, India, etc. got on board. If the climate crisis is that serious, the U.N. should force those countries to cleanup or close their fossil fuel power plants.

California recently enacted a law banning [the sale of new] internal combustion engines, including autos lawn mowers, garden tractors, etc. [starting in] 2035.

Californians are currently experiencing random power outages from strain on their outdated energy grid. Additional strain is coming when EVs are added to the grid. The grid is not going to be upgraded using wind and solar energy alone. Reliable coal and oil are needed for times the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. Last winter, Texas windmills froze up and they had no coal and oil to use as backup.

Sadly, environmentalists want California’s energy policy as a model for the entire U.S.

Personally, I can’t envision California’s Hell’s Angels riding electric motorcycles after 2035.

[Editor’s note: Clarifying language inserted in brackets is our own.]

Steve Wolverton

Parkersburg