DON CLARKE, Richland

For months, various politicians have been warning us of the federal deficit's dire effects on our grandchildren and insisting that when the "fiscal cliff" arrives this winter, we must drastically cut spending on schools, infrastructure, Medicare, Social Security, renewable energy and whatever else of the people's commons they want to cut or sell to the wealthy.

I am much more worried about how empty-headed education, worsening health care, a rotting infrastructure and especially more disasters like Superstorm Sandy will affect them.

More dangerous than an imagined fiscal cliff, made up by self-serving politicians, is the climate cliff we are facing, as the growing number of extreme weather events -- superstorms, floods, drastic droughts -- warn us.

Our religious communities should join with labor unions, small businesses, PTA's, neighborhood associations, college faculties and students to demand a set of changes that will sow the seeds of greater change, by cutting the power of the carbon lords and committing the president and a vocal do-nothing Tea Party Congress to vigorous action (it could happen). The reality is going over a climate cliff and our grandchildren living in real misery and suffering. A deficit or being super wealthy, won't matter then.