A very articulate and sincere young man explains the causes and threats of human caused climate change in a recent letter to the editor (“Act on climate crisis so we can see orcas,” The Herald, Sept. 9). Random cynics may scoff, but every science academy in the world (NASA has a list) supports his concern.
Yes, orcas are threatened. Even at the ambitious 1.5 degree Celsius limit, it is expected that 14 percent of species will disappear forever. And the cost in human suffering and dollars due to climate extremes has risen five to nine times since 1980.
A series of bills in Congress could achieve our Paris climate commitments. We need to speed permitting of clean energy projects, we need to put a “climate pollution fee” on polluters (and return all fees to citizens to protect and motivate), and we need a variety of efforts to protect forests.
These will succeed only if we replace the foot-draggers in Congress so bipartisan climate champions can move forward.
Jan Freed
Los Angeles, Calif.
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