I attended Rep. Hagedorn’s town hall on Friday. I left feeling disillusioned about the path of our country and that of the world, especially on the issue of climate change.

Rep. Hagedorn stated he doesn’t “believe that the climate is changing necessarily because of man.” His beliefs are in conflict with 97% of climate scientists and the United Nations. He dismissed climate change facts as mere opinions where “people have contentions.” I don’t believe this is an issue where we can just politely agree to disagree. Many in the audience appeared to feel the same.

Rep. Hagedorn made it known that he does not have a path to combat climate change and doesn’t see the point in developing one. He stated that “there is no path; we can’t get there.” He asked the audience how we would solve the problem, dismissing the answers and then using that to rationalize his do-nothing approach. In response to a woman, who brought up fuel efficiency standards, Rep. Hagedorn stated that “we only have 12 years ma’am, it doesn’t matter.”

Straight from the playbook of Trump, Hagedorn attempted to use fear to justify his do-nothing approach. He cautioned that a move away from fossil fuels would result in a poor economy and higher prices. He asked if we were willing to risk losing our lifestyle and luxuries (many of us were willing). And finally, what will we do when the wind doesn’t blow?

A few quick Google searches assured me that there is no need to be fearful of these things, but that doing nothing to combat climate change is downright frightening.

Angie Hanson

Albert Lea