Letter: Greenhouse gas bill deserves our support

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Signs of the global climate crisis continue their relentless march: Hurricane Dorian wrought havoc in the Caribbean and threatened our entire East Coast, July was the hottest month ever recorded, the Great Barrier Reef’s health was downgraded from poor to very poor, record long spring Mississippi flooding only recently abated, and ice melt in Antarctica worsens with every study. Climate disasters kill, injure and sicken as well as destroy homes, businesses and crops.

Just in America, climate disasters have cost well over $1 trillion in the past 20 years, nearly triple the amount from the 20 preceding years, before the effects of climate change were felt. This decade the U.S. spent more than $50 billion per year more than those years. Global temperatures are 1 degree Celsius above pre-Industrial Revolution times, but we’re on a path to exceed 3 degrees by century’s end with unfathomable disaster to humans and their pocketbooks.

But we can do something about this rise. H.R. 763—The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act—is currently before Congress and puts American greenhouse gas emissions on pace to stay below a 2 degree rise and does it affordably without additional regulation. It’s supported by over 3,500 economists (nearly 100 from Indiana alone), including several recent Nobel Prize winners. Contact your member of Congress and tell them to support this bill and keep our planet safer for our grandkids.

__________

Greg Kempf

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