White Cane Week support appreciated

Dear Editor,
The Clarkston Area Lions wish to thank everyone for their support during our recent White Cane Week. Through your generosity, we collected over $8,100.
All of the funds collected will be used to support many sight and hearing projects, including Leader Dogs for the Blind, Eversight Michigan, formerly the Michigan Eye Bank, Lions Bear Lake Camp for Physically Challenged Youth, Penrickton Center for Blind Children, Beaumont Silent Children Fund, and the District 11A2 Lions Hearing Program in Macomb and Oakland Counties, just to mention a few.
Additionally, we support Clarkston Lighthouse, Offering Alternative Therapy with Smiles, Inc. (O.A.T.S), and the Clarkston Independence District Library, resources for the sight impaired.
Money raised during White Cane Week also allows the Lions to provide eyeglass and hearing aid support to those in need, as well as free vision screening for pre-school children.
Vision screenings are offered the second Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to noon at the Library, as well as at many other community events. We are proud to report that our club performed 948 vision screenings in 2016, and hope to surpass that number in 2017.
Whether from a car window or at the grocery store, it is the generosity of donors that allows the Clarkston Area Lions to help serve others. You are truly helping the Lions make a difference in our community.
Lions Clubs International is the world’s largest service club organization with over 1.4 million members in approximately 46,000 clubs around the world.
For 100 years, Lions clubs have aided the blind and visually impaired and made a strong commitment to community service and serving youth throughout the world. For more information about the Clarkston Lions, visit our website at www.clarkstonlions.org or on facebook at www.facebook.com/clarkstonlions. We invite you to learn more about us and, hopefully, join us.
Lion Dan Wung, president
Clarkston Area Lions

Reader raises issues in regards to energy

Dear Editor,
President Donald Trump was correct to drop out of the Paris Accord, which focuses on burning of fossil fuels.
The first issue not addressed is population growth. It took 150,000 years to reach a population of one billion people, only 205 years to reach seven billion, and projected to reach 13 billion in the next 100 years.
A second issue is, in the U.S. alone, livestock produces more greenhouse gases, methane, than all U.S. vehicle emissions. As population increases, more livestock will be required.
A third issue is that plant life changes carbon dioxide into oxygen and 25 percent of the U.S. natural plant life has been eliminated for farming, buildings, roads, and other uses.
Every new housing unit, mall, factory, etc. reduces this natural plant life.
A fourth issue is ignoring nuclear energy as an alternative energy source. A nuclear generator, for equal capacities, emits four percent of the greenhouse gas emissions of a natural gas unit, two percent of a coal generator, 50 percent of a solar generator, and the same as a wind generator.
Wind and solar generators require 18,000 acres and costly storage systems when there is no wind or sunshine. Generation costs per KWH are 5.2 cents for gas, 4.1 cents for coal, 3.5 cents for nuclear, 7.7 cents for solar, and 4.3 cents for wind.
Neither wind or solar, or a combination, can supply 100 percent of our energy requirements.
Thomas Breneiser
Independence Township

Thanks for support from award nominators

Dear Editor,
I would like to thank those folks who nominated me for the Clarkston Community Beautification/Preservation award.
I also want to thank the selection and award committee for being chosen this year to receive such recognition, and thank the award sponsor, Building Integrity Sun Structures.
It was a great honor and humbling to be included with the other outstanding recipients of community awards this year. Clarkston is a great place to live and be supported by so many outstanding individuals and organizations.
Jim Brueck
Clarkston