Climate change needs attention

Although I don’t agree with everything espoused in Terry Oxley’s opinion piece, “Protecting environment doesn’t have to be partisan,” I do agree that in the present polarized milieu collective action on behalf of the environment gets neglected. He mentions the need for reforestation initiatives, Hanford Nuclear Reservation cleanup, and addressing raw sewage discharges into Puget Sound. All of these are worthy goals.

But the biggest threat to the planet, by far, is current and ever-deepening climate change. The driver for this crisis is, for the most part, human addiction to the use and combustion of fossil fuels. That is why a bipartisan effort is underway, in the form of the Citizens Climate Lobby, to put a price on carbon. Economists tell us this is the single most effective way to get a handle on our addiction. I urge those who are truly interested in collective action to check out CCL’s information-packed website, the group’s national carbon fee and dividend proposal, and to get involved in the effort to ease our use of fossil fuels.

This story was originally published April 20, 2017 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Climate change needs attention."