To the Editor:

I agree with Joe on the need for a planned transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources (Green energy has a black outlook, June 29 Sentinel-Tribune).

That being said, the concerns Joe has for those losing their jobs in current related jobs is divorced from the past. Our lifestyle would be quite different if we still relied on whalers for oil, buggy and harness makers for transportation, ice from lakes and ponds to cool our food and drinks, and the workers that dealt with all that horse manure. Most of those poor folks lost their jobs.

Plastics are one of the greatest pollutants on the planet fouling rivers, lakes and oceans. Micro plastics are even showing up in our bodies.

Were there gas stations on every corner along with coffee shops prior to the demand, or a result of the demand?

As for military equipment, much of it becomes obsolete before it is even activated. We are in the process of mothballing ships that cost billions that never worked properly and will never be reactivated because they didn’t work. We built billion dollar attack subs that were designed to attack subs the Russians never built. The Russians are finding that tanks can be taken out by shoulder fired weapons operated by troops with little training.

Part of the reason for skyrocketing gas prices is that the oil companies can get away with it. I paid 38 cents less for gas in Sylvania than the current price in Swanton this week. Is there less demand in Sylvania? Oil company profits went up 300% over the first quarter of last year.

Transition from one source to another; horse to coal, coal to oil and nuclear, oil to green, will take time regardless of what the activists want because it has to. Not everyone will run out and purchase electric cars, because they can’t. The military still uses inefficient equipment because even they can’t afford not to.

Many of us will not wait hours to charge a vehicle. Many remain too lazy to properly dispose of bottles and cans and other trash. Many will not convert until no other choice remains. This is how it has been for 200-plus years.

Joe probably felt the same way when the Army gave up horses and mules.

Russ Griggs

Swanton