Columnist Rich Lowry’s dismissal of the climate crisis, which recently ran in the Sun Journal, directly contradicts the positions of our armed services, the U.S. insurance industry and financial sector.
Consider the following statements:
The Department of Defense: “As greenhouse gas emissions increase, sea levels are rising, average global temperatures are increasing, and severe weather patterns are accelerating. These changes, coupled with other global dynamics . . . will devastate homes, land and infrastructure.”
Freddie Mac’s Economic and Housing Research group: “(R)ising sea levels and spreading flood plains . . . appear likely to destroy billions of dollars in property and to displace millions of people. The economic losses and social disruption may happen gradually, but they are likely to be greater in total than those experienced in the housing crisis and Great Recession.”
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission: “A world wracked by frequent and devastating shocks from climate change cannot sustain the fundamental conditions supporting our financial system. Promoting the transition to a net-zero emissions economy and safeguarding financial stability are consistent, mutually reinforcing objectives.”
Over 3,500 economists, including 27 Nobel Prize winners and top economic advisers to presidents of both parties, have endorsed a plan to fight climate change. Their “Economists’ Statement on Carbon Dividends” advocates putting a steadily rising price on carbon dioxide emissions and returning the money to the American people.
The first sentence of this Economists’ Statement asserts: “Global climate change is a serious problem calling for immediate national action.”
Let’s reach across divides and provide U.S. leadership in the fight to slow climate change.
Terry Hansen, Hales Corners, Wisconsin
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