Climate change is a serious and pressing issue that is and will continue to effect the entire planet with our failure of serious action. There had always been the focus on “if” climate change is real, “if” humans are making a serious impact on overall warming of the earth, and “if” we should act on this. We need to move beyond the “ifs” and focus on action.

There is no longer a reason to disprove climate change or the serious effects it has and will have on the environment. 97% of climate scientist agree that manmade emissions have resulted in the warming of the planet. Gavin Schmidt, director of the Goddard Institute states that “We have evidence from the ocean, we have evidence from the land, we have evidence from the melting glaciers, we have evidence from the Arctic, we have evidence from the Antarctic, we have evidence in the tropics, we have evidence from the bottom of the ocean to the surface of the ocean to the top of the atmosphere we have evidence coming out of our ears that the climate system is changing.” With the overwhelming amount of evidence that climate change is happening and not if it is happening we need serious action.

In the House of Representatives in 2019, a bipartisan bill was introduced called the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. With support from both parties, this bill calls to place a fee of fifteen dollars per metric tonne on carbon at the source and raising the fee by ten dollars every year. Then the money collected would be returned equally among households. This plan will allow for a transfer to a clean energy system and give a boost to the economy. It is projected this plan will create over 2 million jobs and lower overall U.S. emissions by 60 percent in twelve years.

We need to end the discussion on the “ifs” of climate change and focus on creating action plans to stop the effects of climate change. These actions need to benefit both the protection of the environment and the American people.

Newsletter