Listen to predictions on climate change

Thank you to the Daily Herald for putting the urgent issue of climate change front and center in the Nov. 23 article, "Climate report warns of worsening disasters." It is a screaming wake-up call about what we humans are doing to our only home. The predictions from scientists that we have been hearing for so long are no longer just a threat to the future: they are coming true now, every day, in the form of record-breaking hurricanes and wildfires.

The article points out that the report found that "the last few years have smashed U.S. records for damaging weather, costing nearly $400 billion since 2015." And this is just the economic toll ... think of the wrenching tragedies just caused by the California wildfires.

What will be next? If we, our children and our grandchildren are to have any hope of avoiding devastating losses, what must be next is action to slow down this existential threat to all of us. The time is past for partisan debate and arguing. Climate change is real and is worsening because of human activities, so both parties in Congress must work together to enact legislation to address it now.

Experts agree that a highly effective strategy is to place a carbon fee on fossil fuels at the source (oil and gas producers) and then return all of the revenue as equal dividends to all American households. The fossil fuel industry would be incentivized to steadily reduce emissions, and consumers would receive a benefit which is pumped back into the economy.

If you care about our future on this planet, call, write, or email your new and outgoing members of Congress to demand that they make action on climate change a priority and advocate for a carbon fee and dividend bill. We can't wait.

Karen Campbell

Bolingbrook