Climate change is different kind of crisis that we need to escape

There is a crisis in the world with asymptomatic spread, an urgency to bend the curve and no cure-all vaccine in sight. It’s the climate crisis. Your action can help Idaho and the world to escape it.

Asymptomatic spread: On most days, people don’t feel the true heat of global warming. Out of sight, out of mind. So, we go about our lives without precautions. Yet, every day that we continue to spew out our trillion droplets of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses, we further endanger ourselves, our children and grandchildren. Asymptomatic spread comes at our future’s peril.

Bend the curve: Five years ago in Paris, 196 nations, led by the United States, agreed to act collectively to bend the fast-rising curve of global temperature before it was irreversible. Most nations are doing their best to bend the curve. In 2017, the United States joined only Syria and Nigeria in leaving that agreement. Soon afterward, we began to dismantle earlier climate-protective policies. Without re-committing to the Paris Agreement for bending the curve, we put future Americans and the future of the world at great risk.

A vaccine — but not a cure-all: With COVID-19, no long-term solution will come without a vaccine. For global warming, the best vaccine will involve putting a price on carbon. A carbon fee policy would do more than any other single action to bend the global warming curve. A bill in Congress, HR763, would deliver that vaccine and provide a strong foundation for climate solutions.

Carbon fees, alone, are not enough but together with other effective policies the curve will bend.

What about a mask? Yes! Please wear a mask in public to stop COVID-19 spread. But for the climate crisis, we need to show our faces, speak out and demand a climate solution. In doing that, we will unmask the hidden subsidies to coal, gas and oil companies even as their emissions darken our future. Each time you speak out to family, friends and neighbors, you empower them to speak out, too. That moves us closer to the tipping point of public opinion. Only then, will we get Congress to act. Now is the time for concerned citizens to step forward. It is not (yet) too late to solve the climate crisis.

What can you do? There is a lot you can do personally. Put solar on your roof. Make your next car an electric one, or at least a hybrid. Insulate your home and use set-back thermometers. All of that helps. But even more importantly, what we really need is for our local, state, national and global leaders to set policies that will help keep coal, oil and natural gas in the ground and reward efforts to cut back other greenhouse gasses. Idaho has the potential to become a key player in climate solutions with our abundance of sun, wind and water. Join with the Citizens Climate Lobby and other climate action organizations to increase the political will needed to achieve an effective climate solution.