Letters

LETTER 1 - Cat Tale Inspiring

It was inspiring to read about the SoNo cats. I took care of a feral colony of five – Casey, Cookie, Spike, Minnie and Ebony, for five years.

One day a neighborhood resident decided that the cats were worthless and secretly trapped and dispatched them to various locations.

The local authorities could not/would not press charges against this person.

I still think of them every day.

Darlene Pallay – Mollica

Youngstown, OH

LETTER 2 – CORRECTION

Spring 2010's article “Polar Bears in Trouble” had a critical typo. It says:

Nature writer Marybeth Holleman describes what's happening to the environment: "Sea ice loss has resulted mainly from elevated Arctic air temperatures, greater solar insulation and heat retention in open water, and incursions of warm waters into the Arctic Ocean basin." 

"Greater solar insulation" should be "Greater solar insolation."  Insolation refers to the amount of sunlight reaching an area; insulation refers to the resistance to heat (or current) flow.  Polar bears could use some insulation from the insolation!

David Kanter, Hughesville, MD

Marybeth Holleman, writing from Anchorage, agrees with our careful reader: it should indeed be "insolation." Many thanks to David Kanter for the note. - Eds.