Letter: Get Congress moving to address climate crisis

Buffalo and western New York clearly just suffered through one of the worst and deadliest snowstorms in memory. Severe and almost unheard-of events are now apparent everywhere you look. In just the last year, we have seen droughts scattered throughout the U.S., major wildfires, record heat in Europe, unusually strong storms and tornadoes in December, disastrous flooding in our heartland, a hurricane that seemed to last forever, and severe loss of life and trillions in damage from floods in Pakistan. We can't keep saying that we are experiencing 100-year events, because you can be sure that they will reoccur again in far less than 100 years.

We need language and action that matches the urgency of our situation: we are in a climate crisis, not simply experiencing climate change.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill and the partisan Inflation Reduction Act have jump-started our transition to a future less dependent on fossil fuels. These actions could get us part way to President Biden's goal of a 50% reduction of 2005 level greenhouse emissions by 2030. Current legislation is attempting to address the crisis with financial incentives, often described as "carrots." To really get serious, we also need "sticks" that raise the costs of all products and activities that are heavily reliant on fossil fuels.

A slowly rising price on carbon emissions with revenue returned to Americans can provide the "stick" in a manner that doesn't harm the economy or hurt consumers, including those with lesser incomes. Virtually all economists agree on this approach, Canada is already using it, and new Climate Leadership Council and Americans for Carbon Dividends polling shows Republican voters want to see meaningful solutions as well. Let your members of Congress know that you want to see bipartisan climate action in 2023.

Thomas Rausch

Glen Ellyn