Pass Carbon Dividend Legislation
July 13, 2018
Americans this year celebrated our independence by
buying 94 percent of all our fireworks ($900 million) from China,
further deepening our trade deficit to a country which, as the recent
trade war shows, holds ever more disturbing economic power over us. But
there are other ironies that swirl around July 4, 1776.
Did you know that many colonies (especially in the South) were in favor of independence because Britain had begun the process of
outlawing slavery? If we stayed aBritish colony, our “peculiar
institution” would be threatened. A more up-to-date irony: CBS news
reported the morning of July 4 that “75 million Americans [in half of
the original 13 colonies] will be in the grip of an extreme heat wave
today [soaring into triple digits, factoring in the humidity]”. People
are advised to stay indoors and miss the fireworks?
As global warming makes ever more severe cuts into
Americans’ freedom to do as we choose, one hopes lawmakers will soon
pass carbon dividend legislation, such asthat proposed by Citizens
Climate Lobby, so that The Fourth might again be a cause for
celebration, not a reminder of what we didn’t do when we had the chance.
– Bruce Ratcliffe, Fresno
No comments:
Post a Comment