Support act to help combat climate change

In January, the Tribune reported that flooding on the Mississippi and its tributaries and a record 49.54 inches of precipitation in Chicago were evidence that 2019 was one of the wettest years on record and represented a costly natural disaster. Recently, a Feb. 10 online article in E&E News, from Scientific American reported under the heading Natural Disasters, that the National Weather Service is predicting that flooding that overwhelmed much of the interior U.S. in 2019 is expected to resume in the next three months and soak the area for a second consecutive spring.

Conditions could be bad this year because of heavy rains again and the leftover conditions from last year's floods. Rain and snow melt are flowing into streams at an unusually hight rate. Illinois is among a group of seven Midwestern states that experienced their third-wettest 12-month period on record with the NOAA.

The Global Waqf Fund for Emissions Prevention, collects information on reducing emissions and restoring the planet to safer conditions. It provided information on historically typical planting conditions in the nation's "breadbasket."

Scientists are telling us that heavy rains and floods and lack of a hard freeze are likely due to the changing climate and the warming of mid-west winters. Even if we hope for better conditions to return, the truth is that we cannot rely on that.

Our best hope is taking effective steps, beginning as soon as possible. Enacting a tax or fee on fossil fuels at the source of production and recycling that money back equally to American households is the best first step. There is a bill in the U.S. House right now that would do exactly that, HR 763, the Energy Innovation Act. Be part of the climate solution by contacting your Congressional Representative on the House.gov website and writing to them that you support this bill.

Laura Haule

Warrenville