Letter to the editor: On the occasion of my child’s 18th birthday
On the occasion of my child’s 18th birthday, it is a time of reflection and hope. Parents want everything for their children and do their very best to provide for them. We wish for their safety and well-being, particularly as they leave the circle of safety that parents draw around them. I hope we have prepared our child, but I know for sure that in one area I have failed him.
We are sending our son out into a world with an unstable climate. We really do not know what lies ahead. Will there be enough water for him and the family he may one day have? Will there be a stable food supply as growing regions shift and population grows? Will the world destabilize further as climate refugees are forced to move to places that may not welcome them? Will my child be okay when I am gone? These are haunting questions.
And so I ask myself, my leaders, and my fellow humans, please, let’s take action. We are doing some good, but we need to do more, and we have opportunities. A greener economy can bring jobs that will help people and stabilize our earth. We can use our big brains to engineer solutions, but we must not obstruct them. “Carbon Fee and Dividend” as proposed by the Citizens Climate Lobby, a bipartisan organization working for all people, is a viable option. There are solutions, and we must pursue them for our children, who need a planet that can sustain them. Thank you.
—Liz Haigh
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Yes! Why even bother with the paid deniers and front groups who thrive creating the delay of a false climate debate?
A revenue neutral carbon fee but with a 100% dividend, makes enormous sense (cents, too)! !
Conservative and liberal economists and scientists say it is the best way to create healthy pollution free communities and limit climate change. It is not a tax. This way citizens would RECEIVE the carbon fees as a monthly check, for example. That would protect us from price spikes in dirty energy.
Polluters PAY the fees, so it holds fossil fuel corporations responsible for the damages. or “externalities”, they cause, hundreds of billions of dollars per year (Harvard School of Medicine).
It would more rapidly limit further pollution than by regulations alone, as happened in BC Canada with a similar, popular policy. BC lowered emissions and also lowered taxes with their fees.
A study by respected non-partisan Regional Economic Modeling, Inc. found the dividends would help to create 2.9 million additional jobs in 20 years, while reducing carbon emissions 50% in that time, as fees stimulate low carbon technologies . http://citizensclimatelobby.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/REMI-National-SUMMARY.pdf
To those who reject the science: perhaps nothing will change your mind. But what have you got against cleaner air, less asthma in our kids, fewer heart attacks, and more money (the dividend) in your pockets?
To those accepting the science: Any effort to limit the problem of climate trauma is worth it. For example: the cost of sea level rise ALONE is so great that no effort to prevent it is unwarranted.
Elon Musk was asked “what can we do? ” Musk: “I would say whenever you have the opportunity, talk to the politicians.,,,,. We have to fix the unpriced externality [social cost]. I would talk to your friends about it and fight the propaganda from the carbon industry.”