Editor,

Our new president just backed out of the Paris climate agreement, but that doesn’t happen until 2020. Maybe President Donald Trump will learn by then that many more jobs will be required to build dikes around sea-level cities as ocean levels rise and storms worsen with global warming.

Should we follow suit and hope it all goes away, or that it isn’t real science? As island residents, we are particularly vulnerable.

Ask not what the world can do for you, but what you can do for the world. We can help as individuals. Do you combine trips out with the car? Do you try to save energy at home by using LED lights, closing the door to the fridge, adding home insulation? Do you drive smaller or hybrid cars, or try to cut back your mileage? Do you use Island Transit? Buses run whether we are on them or not. (Saturday service would be nice — other counties even bus on Sundays). Would you cut down a tree to enhance your view, or leave it standing to absorb carbon dioxide and sequester carbon? How much do you fly? Air travel has a heavy impact. Could the Navy use training simulators more and fly less?

There are many ways in which we as individuals can participate to try to lessen mankind’s responsibility for global warming, even though our federal government chooses to participate less.

Get some personal skin in the game.

TIM VERSCHUYL

Oak Harbor