A recent survey found two-thirds of Americans believe humans cause climate change. President Obama rejected the Keystone X Pipeline. Coal consumption is steeply declining. Renewables are the fastest growing segment of the energy industry. Shell Oil abandoned drilling in the Arctic. The world’s nations will soon sign a climate treaty. So why worry about climate change?
Good news lulls us into thinking we have solved the climate crisis. Americans, while believers, are not worried about climate change. Keystone, an important symbolic victory, does little to change oil consumption. Shell abandoned the drilling for economic, not environmental reasons, and the climate treaty is the low-hanging fruit, leaving the hard work for the future. Still, we are falling behind what needs to happen for a sustainable future.
The simple solution: carbon fee and dividend, proposed by the non-partisan Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Free-market friendly and effective, it incentivizes good (renewable), discourages bad (carbon-based), while strengthening the economy, and it can happen quickly.
Peter Westcott,Carbondale
This letter was published in the Dec. 10 edition.
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