Shelter Island Reporter editorial: Taking care of each other

With inflation taking a bite out of wallets at the gas pump and everywhere else, and issues such as affordable housing and water quality concerning us on the local, county, state  and federal levels, we often forget one of the most pressing emergencies facing us.

It’s one that many of us have tuned out, which is our fault, but also the fault of our leaders. 

Climate change, and a looming ecological disaster looms, as a new, startling report from Stony Brook University is telling us: shelterislandreporter.timesreview.com/2022/04/13/stony-brook-scientist-nitrogen-loading-an-ongoing-threat-to-long-island-waters/?preview_id=58683&preview_nonce=1b93214239&preview=true&_thumbnail_id=54330

We’ve heard it all before, and the best explanation for limited — or no — action on the crisis of our era is the frog in the water.

Put a frog in a pot of cold water and he’ll be happy; put a low fire underneath the pot and our friend won’t notice that the water’s boiling and that he’s literally in the soup until it’s too late.

Our page 1 story last week on the Stony Brook report is a reminder (again) for those who are letting the grim news about the threat to our local waters, and the effect that has on all of us, pass them by.

Nitrogen loading and low oxygen in our waters have become “a new normal,” the Stony Brook report found.

Stony Brook University scientist Christopher Gobler noted the obvious: “We’re all in this together.”

Let’s hope it’s not just in that pot with the frog.