Keep coverage front and center

We commend the Daily Herald for the recent editorial series "Covering Climate Change."

We agree that the reality of climate change and the need to deal with it require that this coverage be kept front and center. This is a global problem requiring global solutions. The longer humans delay acting to slow the climate crisis, the worse the impact of a warming planet will be.

Heat and precipitation records continue to be broken this year. May 2019 was the rainiest on record in Chicago. The previous 12 months were the wettest in the recorded history of the continental United States. June 2019 was the hottest June globally and July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded on the planet according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

We need our leaders to work on solutions to this problem now. One solution is a bill in Congress which would place a fee on carbon emissions to gradually reduce fossil fuel usage.

This bill, The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2019 (H.R. 763), already has 62 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. Mike Zanillo's Guest view editorial in your Sept. 19th edition clearly explains this carbon pricing solution.

We recommend that citizens communicate with their members of Congress to express their concern about climate change and to urge them to support H.R. 763.

Please continue to cover climate change in the Daily Herald as public awareness and decisive action are essential to slowing the climate crisis.

Joe and Mary Alice Masonick

Elgin