Climate change is no longer a scenario of the future. It is a stark reality today. To preserve the habitability of our planet, we must acknowledge the fact of climate change and deal with it.
Fossil fuels have powered economic growth around the world for over 200 years. The harmful effects of pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere are clear. We must stop treating the air as a vast dump site. We face a reckoning. Without a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, our children and grandchildren face an ominous future.
Average global temperatures are on track to inundate coastal cities and make large swaths of our planet uninhabitable. To have any chance of keeping warming under control, emissions need to be cut in half by 2050 relative to 2009 levels.
In January 2019 the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 763) was introduced in the House by a bipartisan group of Representatives: Ted Deutch, Francis Rooney, Charlie Crist, Anna Eshoo, Judy Chu, Dan Lipinski, and Scott Peters. It would encourage a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. A fund would be established by charging a fee on fossil fuels at the well, mine or the U.S. border. The revenue collected would be distributed to American citizens.
If implemented, harmful carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by one-third in the United States, over a ten-year period. It is urgent that we act now on behalf of our children and future generations.
David Trowbridge
Greenbank
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