Dear Editor,
Archimedes said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I can move the world.” We have the lever and fulcrum that can save the world. We just need to start using it.
The threat is global warming. The Paris Climate Agreement was always going to be too little too late, but we have a much simpler, faster, more effective and realistic solution.
It works on the principal of self interest. It doesn’t ask anyone to give up anything or make any sacrifices —except for the fossil fuel corporations that have been lying to us for decades about global warming (Scientific American). It makes them pay an escalating carbon pollution fee, all of which goes to every taxpayer in equal monthly “carbon dividend” checks. And the amount of those checks keeps going up every year.
Solar and wind energy prices and energy storage prices keep dropping exponentially. That allows people to make more and more money each year by using their “carbon dividend” money to buy cheaper solar and wind power instead of oil, natural gas or coal. And that will increase U.S. GDP $75-80 billion annually (citizensclimatelobby.org) while phasing out fossil fuels, globally within the next decade (Newsweek), which is about all the time we have left.
Independent studies show “carbon dividends” will create over 5 million U.S. jobs (Stanford University’s solutionsproject.org). It’s been successful in British Columbia for eight years (The Economist).
“Carbon dividends” uses conservative economics so it can pass in Congress. Google the conservative Climate Leadership Council’s video “A Climate Solution Where All Sides Win” which explains its global “domino” effect.
We really can save the world while making the vast majority of middle-class and low-income Americans financially better off with this simple policy. It’s genius.
Lynn Goldfarb
Lancaster, Penn.
Letter to the Editor: An alternative to the Paris Agreement
