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What can I do about climate change? It is difficult to see the small actions I and others take as an adequate response, given the enormity of the problem that is climate change. We are fighting prolonged droughts and huge wildfires, massive hurricanes and floods.
In my estimation, the answer needs to be bigger, more all-encompassing than what any one person can do. We need a structural change to the way we all live.
Luckily, I’m not the only person thinking big thoughts about this issue. Research has been ongoing for decades regarding possible solutions. One of the most effective solutions that businesses, scientists, and economists agree on is putting a price on carbon. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports a price on carbon. 28 Nobel prize winning economists, a majority of Americans, and the American Petroleum Institute all agree that putting a price on carbon is the best way to tackle the issues of climate change. Why? Because it is relatively easy to do, very effective and uses the American marketplace to fight climate change.
How does a price on carbon combat climate change? A steadily rising fee is added to carbon at the point of extraction (from the ground) or at the border. Then, let the market take care of it! Instead of people in Washington telling me how to lower my personal carbon emissions, millions of businesses get to innovate, and I get to choose, as a consumer, what are my priorities, just as I always have. How do I know whether wool or cotton socks have a bigger carbon footprint? Prices will slowly, gradually, go up or down, or stay stable. There is no way to know as long as carbon pollution is free. Is it worth it to better insulate or re-roof my house, or buy a more carbon-efficient truck? Prices will now tell me.
What about the fact that my bill at the gas station and my home heating bill will surely rise with a carbon price? A good question heading into winter. One proposal for putting a price on carbon is for the government to give 100 percent of the money collected back to the people in the form of a monthly check. As long as your family uses less carbon than the average family, your monthly check will be more than the increase in your expenses. This is true for 85 percent of American households since the rich use a majority of the carbon in this economy.
If you are curious to learn more, go to CCLUSA.ORG. It is a crucial time to make your voice heard by contacting our Members of Congress. Right now, this fall, they are working out the essential structural changes that will create real solutions to climate change. Please call and email them, either on your own or via the above-mentioned website.
This issue will be with us for decades. What the government puts in place right now will affect us and our children and grandchildren. For myself, I would like to have a voice in the world they are creating, a voice in moving towards a more sustainable economy that avoids the worst costs of climate change.
Jeremy Lopez,
Grand Marais
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