Carbon dividend a solution

Gary Crooks’ Aug. 23 opinion, “Smart Bombs: Climate change affects fire season, drought,” should be a wake-up call to everyone. He reveals that the changes climate scientists warned us about are happening now.

We should have acted decades ago based on scientists’ warnings. We didn’t. Now, we have visible evidence across the Northwest in the form of fires and more. Climate change is also evident nationwide and globally. It’s frightening to see the negative impacts happening so much sooner than many had hoped.

We must act now. A great solution is the Citizens Climate Lobby’s Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal (citizensclimatelobby.org). This market-based solution places a slowly rising fee on carbon-based fossil fuels where they are extracted. The money from the fee is given to households, not the government. It has provisions to ensure level playing fields for exports and imports, and to encourage other countries to enact similar legislation.

This proposal is an environmentally viable solution and one politicians and businesses can support. Ask Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers to endorse this proposal, which is supported by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a conservative think tank president, and George Shultz, secretary of state under President Reagan.

Virginia Lohr

Pullman