In response to the article titled, “With new House membership comes … new attention to climate change”: It wasn’t long ago that politicians avoided hot-button topics like climate change during their runs for office. Now it’s acceptable and commendable, although it still requires courage. I admit when I first heard about climate change back in the 1980s I didn’t take it seriously. After all, what’s a few degrees temperature rise globally when we see seasonal temperature swings of 120°F right here in central Minnesota?
But as I looked into this I realized there’s not a single national science academy in the world that disputes or denies the reality of human-caused climate change. It turns out a small difference in average global temperature is enough to upset Mother Nature’s delicate balance. So much so that it has a catastrophic effect on things that support human life on earth. Here in Minnesota that will come as more hail and wind damage, floods, drought, health and food scarcity issues. But rather than giving up hope, my family resolved to conserve energy, and changed the way we fuel our lives to favor electricity, since electricity can be generated without burning poisonous fuels.
In the 1930s we had the “New Deal,” a series of programs launched by Franklin D. Roosevelt to solve the problems caused by the Great Depression. (If you’d like to experience a remnant of Roosevelt’s New Deal, visit beautiful Flandrau State Park in New Ulm.) Today’s “New Deal” should harness the powers of the market and American innovation so we can save America from a financial collapse while also saving the world from an environmental collapse.
A tidal wave of support for clean energy is building in America. It aims to implement technology we already have to solve the climate change problem. Billion-dollar weather disasters are trending upward due to human caused climate change. If we don’t accelerate innovation to a clean energy economy, we will pay for the delay via higher insurance rates and higher taxes as the costs are passed along to you, the American citizen.
Lawmakers need to know you back them. Consider supporting the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act that has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives (HR 763). It’s effective, good for people and the economy, bipartisan and revenue neutral. You can voice your support by calling your representative in Washington, D.C. Then join the Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
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