Letter: Global climate change coming

In response to Steven Stontag’s Jan. 10 letter criticizing carbon taxes, I ask what is your proposal for dealing with climate change, or do you contend that the problem does not exist?

If your position is the latter, prepare to be confounded as the damage from global climate change escalates and denial becomes factually untenable.

I do not say that dealing with climate change will be simple or painless.

But the longer we fail to act, the more damaging the consequences will become, and the more economically and socially disruptive addressing these consequences will be.

It would be far better to take action as a nation, recognize the damage greenhouse gas emissions are causing, and put a gradually increasing price on carbon emissions now.

Such an approach will signal the true environmental cost of carbon, allow time for new technologies to develop, and enable the market to choose the best approaches for achieving a carbon-free energy future.

The alternative is to wait until the choices are massive expenditures to deal with the physical damage and social disruption of more frequent extreme weather events and far more disruptive and expensive government actions to force the emission reductions required to stop them.

This story was originally published January 16, 2018 at 3:24 PM with the headline "Letter: Global climate change coming."