Letter: Act now on carbon fee, dividend

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are now more than 50% higher than in preindustrial times - higher than any time in the last 4 million years, when global temperatures were 7 degrees higher than they are now and sea levels were up to 80 feet higher.

Such a planet would be unrecognizable to us now, and it is frightening to contemplate that we continue to push ourselves in that direction. We can all recognize the signs of a warming world - changed growing seasons for crops; more devastating hurricanes, fires, and heat waves; and water shortages, among many others.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other organizations tell us that we must reduce our carbon emissions by 50% in the next 10 years and then eliminate them soon after if we don't want to push our world further and further into climate catastrophe.

We need to act now. One key action would be for Congress to pass a carbon fee and dividend. This policy uses market forces to reduce carbon emissions by placing a rising fee on those emissions, encouraging corporations to move away from high-carbon sources of energy and toward zero-carbon sources. And the government would distribute all of the funds collected via this fee back to American households in a dividend, which would defray any increased energy costs for lower-income households.

The fee would also encourage corporations to innovate around energy sources and would lead to numerous green energy jobs. Leading economists, politicians on both sides of the aisle and 75% percent of Americans support a price on carbon. It is time for Congress to enact the carbon fee and dividend policy and put us on a path toward reduced emissions, cleaner air, and job creation.

Jim Schwartz

Oak Park