OOPS! Climate change will cost more than stopping it
4 hrs ago
Pete Kuntz
nptelegraph.com
Regarding “‘Green New Deal’ is no deal at all” (letter to the editor, Feb. 15): Critics of the Green New Deal conveniently forget to mention that climate change will be much more expensive than doing something to stop it, and we’re running out of time to do that.
We have only until 2030 to transition to renewable energy or in future decades we’ll face runaway global warming. First, “economic collapse,” which will cost trillions, followed by “societal collapse,” and then it gets worse (2018 IPCC and U.S. Climate Assessment reports).
That’s why the Green New Deal is an idea whose time has come: fixing both climate change and the economy. It has “overwhelming support” (81 percent) from voters in both parties (Yale, Monmouth, and George Mason University polls). It would end the CO2 emissions that cost Americans billions in health costs annually (Forbes) and climate disasters now costing taxpayers hundreds of billions annually (NOAA/NASA).
Solar and wind are now cheaper than any fossil fuel (Forbes, Lazard, IREANA, IEA) and they will continue to plummet in cost, as will energy storage (Scientific American). Switching to sustainable farming and grazing practices will renew our soil and bring back profitable family farms that will actually reverse global warming by using the soil as a carbon sink.
We can pay for a Green New Deal by taxing fossil fuel mega-corporations out of existence. Our oil and coal corporations knowingly created the climate crisis (Scientific American) and they, not the ordinary taxpayer, should pay to fix it. See how at citizensclimatelobby.org. |
