Earth Protect Blog

Combat climate change, Letter to Editor, The Denver Post, October 13. 2020 Peter Fessenden, Highlands Ranch, CO 

COVID-19 is a crisis. Much worse, particularly for future generations, is human-caused climate change. Many years of research yield a four-part solution.

Step 1: Education as to how serious this is has been done by Mother Earth via unprecedented wildfires, floods, droughts and hurricanes. Enlighten yourself further by researching killer GLOFs (glacier lake outburst flows); permafrost thawing tipping point; melting glaciers, sea ice and ice sheets; ocean acidification, etc.

Step 2: Courageously institute a bold progressive state tax increase or supplement.

Step 3: Retraining current fossil fuel workers and revamping our infrastructure for alternative energy, with enough left over to develop carbon capture and storage.

Step 4: Go fossil-fuel free.

Contact legislators in person and through the ballot box to do the right thing. There are worthwhile organizations that give you facts and inspiration, such as the National Research Development Council, Union of Concerned Scientists, the Environmental Defense Fund, Wild Earth Guardians, Sunrise Movement, Colorado Rising, Zero Hour and 350.org.

A past president said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” The late Sen. John McCain stated, “Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself ...”

They were admirably courageous and now it is your turn, since “there is no Planet B.”