No Hiding From The Climate

The Democratic Party’s attempts to address the climate crisis are being attacked by Republicans without offering any alternative solution. This is the same as Republican attacks on the Affordable Care Act without offering any alternative or their saying not to worry about the COVID-19 pandemic, it will go away. Ignoring problems only allows the problems to get worse and more costly to address.

The buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is changing the climate, warming the oceans, causing more severe heat waves, draughts, forest fires and catastrophic storms. Action is needed now to stabilize and then reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being dumped into our atmosphere. The intensified severity of the fire season brought on by the carbon dioxide induced volatile climate increases the damage and costs of forest fires and rebuilding afterward. A cap and trade policy or a carbon dioxide pollution fee allows those who need or want to continue dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to pay an added cost that reflects the costs caused by their dumping.

Who should bear this rising cost? Those who use the atmosphere as a dump or the general taxpayer? Right now, it’s the taxpayers that are paying the cost. It is only fair that those who pollute pay. This small cost is a simple market based approach and stimulates innovation and jobs, finding ways to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide. The alternative preferred by Republicans is to hide our heads in the sand.

Frank Vignola

Eugene