“Unprecedented!” That’s the word I have heard repeatedly in reference to Hurricane Harvey. Rain measured in feet rather than inches.
How many more Harveys can we endure? The National Flood Insurance Program is already $24 billion in debt. How many have to die or lose their homes and businesses? If we keep dumping greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, we’re signing up for more of the same and much worse.
It is a fact that a warmer, wetter world plays a significant role in intensifying storms. Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said that the main fuel for the storm was warm water over the Gulf – as much as 7.2 degrees above average: “Although these storms occur naturally, the storm is apt to be more intense … and with much heavier rainfalls.”
We have the practical solutions to reverse climate change — see www.drawdown.org. They won’t be implemented until we have legislation that shifts the market away from the production of greenhouse gases.
Putting a price on carbon is the only legislative move that matches the scale of the problem. A national carbon-pricing bill could require fossil fuel companies to pay a fee for every ton of carbon dioxide or equivalent emissions. The market will then turn to low or no emissions.
If all that revenue were returned equally to American households in the form of a dividend, studies show it would boost the economy and bring millions of jobs. That would be a win-win!
The Climate Leadership Council, led by Republican statesmen James Baker, Henry Paulson, George Shultz and others, released “The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends.”
To date, 26 Democrats and 26 Republicans have joined the Climate Solutions Caucus in the House of Representatives. Feeling pressure from their constituents, they’ve decided to get serious about climate action. Our own Congressman James McGovern, has not yet signed on. After Harvey, will members of the Texas delegation, McGovern and many others step up?
Adele Gladstone-Gilbert
Amherst