As we write this, human beings are dying prematurely — from respiratory disease, heart attacks, and lung cancer — due to carbon emissions. Local zoning can help.

HILLTOWNS — A California company has mailed large landowners in the rural Helderbergs, asking to lease their land for solar arrays.

Over a century ago, Frank Shulman developed a model for solar energy that has been expanded and approved; lawmakers have not kept up with scientists and inventors.