Changing the game

Can we institute effective climate measures? Readers see hopeful signs, and concerns

Gov. takes steps to reduce emissions

I AM TREMENDOUSLY encouraged by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s executive order of Jan. 29. Calling for New Mexico to join the U.S. Climate Alliance and committing our state to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement is an important moral and ethical action. As a person of faith, I try to live a core value which is “Love of neighbor.” I feel it is everyone’s responsibility to work to stop the damage we are doing to our Earth, children and the most vulnerable. Future generations have a right to a habitable planet. Climate change is impacting so many people, plants and animals and entire ecosystems. We must reverse course, and we can’t wait for the federal government to come to its senses.

Gov. Lujan Grisham’s call to cut New Mexico’s greenhouse emissions by 45 percent below 2005 levels over the next 12 years is vitally important. Setting up a task force headed by two cabinet secretaries to work on climate change means that there will be follow-through and real action. Thank you, Gov. Lujan Grisham! RUTH STRIEGEL Albuquerque

Get over fear and use clean nuclear power

WE ARE LOSING a coalfired power plant and replacing it with what? If we were serious about climate change, we would replace it with a nuclear power plant! Instead, we litter our landscape with windmills and solar panels that respectively only produce power when the wind blows and the sun shines. Sure, we can produce a lot of power that way, by giving up huge acreages of land, much of which used to be undisturbed.

If Americans were serious about climate change, they would get over their unreasonable fear of nuclear power. It is a power source that has proven itself safe over the 50 years it has been in use in this country. There have been only two (major) nuclear power disasters — Russia and Japan — both of which could have been prevented.

Also, we have to get over our fear of nuclear waste disposal. It has been proven safe, but there are always those who come up with absurd ideas why it might cause problems thousands of years in the future. Some people act as if the waste will surface as soon as it is put in the ground. If we don’t use places like Yucca Mountain for our current stockpiled nuclear waste, that waste could have grave consequences for our oceans even now.

Instead, we slowly build up solar and wind power, and still the bulk of our power is produced from fossil fuels. We are only a few percentage points toward our goal of eliminating carbon-generating sources of power. If we had committed this country to nuclear power 15 years ago, we could already be getting nearly all of our electricity from non-carbon dioxide-generating sources. But first we have to get over our fear of nuclear power generation and nuclear waste disposal. Until then, we have no choice but to continue our use of fossil fuels.

Note that I am not against the use of solar and wind power, except where it clutters the landscape. The worst is windmills on ridgetops disturbing views that used to be clutter-free. HARVEY EASTMAN Albuquerque

Climate-change deniers are wrong

EVERY WINTER when temperatures are down, people like Cal Thomas try to fool the fools. Reading his opinion piece “Temperature is down; climate rhetoric heats up,” it’s obvious to me that unproven, uninformed and fake news still appears in print. If a truly proportional time were given between climate scientists and climate deniers, it would be more akin to 1,000 to 1, with the 1 equaling those who aren’t climate scientists, don’t have the facts, or have the facts and chose to distort the truth in favor of fossil-fuel interests.

Why are we still giving con men like Cal Thomas equal space? The facts have been in for quite a while and unequivocally prove that we are to blame for the current, rapid rise in temperatures. Climate change is a very serious, unpleasant and difficult problem that has to be addressed. To do something will cost fossil fuel companies a lot of profits — probably hundreds of billions of dollars. To do nothing will cost the rest of us far more. The science has been settled for some time now. Don’t give your children’s future to fossil fuel companies. MARCO WIKSTROM Geologist Albuquerque

Carbon dividend puts price on pollution

GROWING UP in Gallup 40 years ago, we regularly had big winter storms. I remember 4-foot snowdrifts outside of our home. The first snowfall of every year, we took a snow bath, a traditional Navajo blessing in the fresh snow to greet the winter and thank the cold for keeping us strong. Today, the snow has all but disappeared. Last year, we had to drive our boys high into the mountains for their snow bath, as there was none at home. Our climate is changing, and it’s because of our pollution, our choices.

The fossil-fuel industry’s only response has been to hide it, despite being aware of it for decades. The government hasn’t done anything about it. It is up to the people, to us. Polluters have been dumping greenhouse gases into the air for decades with no consequences, and now we’re paying for it, and our children and grandchildren will pay for it dearly with their health, their happiness, their prosperity.

Polluting shouldn’t be free to do, and if it’s not, then pollution will decrease. The Energy Innovation (and Carbon Dividend Act of 2019, HR 763) makes it no longer free to pollute. It may not be perfect, but it is the first time in a decade that representatives from both parties have sat down together to work on this problem. They need to know how important this is, that it matters and that they must keep working on it. Responding to this by saying government can’t do anything right is useless. That doesn’t contribute to solutions, it just makes people upset and defensive.

As a Native American man, it’s hard for me to believe the government on anything. But when it comes to our climate, our Mother Earth, we have do everything we can to help the right and left wings — wings of one mighty eagle — come together to protect and preserve what remains of our natural world, to protect the living.

How are you helping? How much do you know? Are you talking to friends, family, your representatives? What will you tell your children, your grandchildren? How are you protecting them? REGINALD MITCHELL Rio Rancho

Bipartisan bill lets market do the work

A WINDFALL of Permian Basin fossil fuels for New Mexico and Texas that are extractable now, i.e. “… one of the most important places in the world in terms of oil production.”

(Dec. 3’s) Albuquerque Journal article: “Leaders stress need to win support for climate measures” quoting U.N. Secretary António Guterres: (global warming is) “the most important issue we face.”

Fossil fuels, huge producers of C02 into the atmosphere that cause the warming of the earth, are certifiably the biggest engines of climate change. And yet we New Mexicans now sit on a fossil fuel/ C02 reservoir worth untold billions.

How are we to profit for our much-needed public services and also be able to face the next generation that will suffer unimagined consequences of using this windfall?

A solution: While producing the oil/gas, accept a fee on every barrel and cubic foot for the consequence of enhancing climate change as would every other fossil fuel producer in the country. New Mexico pumps its windfall, but also creates market pressure for green-energy solutions while its citizens receive back those carbon fees to spend as they want annually.

There is bipartisan legislation newly introduced in the U.S. House to do just this. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (of 2019, HR 763), which would place a steadily rising fee on carbon emissions and return all revenue to households equally. This bill is a market-based approach with bipartisan support that will drive down carbon pollution while putting money in people’s pockets.

Bipartisan. Think of that. LIZA WHITE Albuquerque

Nonpartisan lobby a sign of change

THE ENERGY Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, recently introduced by bipartisan rosters in both the U.S. House and Senate, is rightfully garnering national attention. This is the first bipartisan climate legislation in a decade and a real attempt at a solution to a big problem. In his Dec. 25 op-ed, Gary Hays laments the futility of trusting the government with a climate solution— or any complicated task.

Certainly, it would be nice if industry and good intentions had taken care of this issue decades ago, but alas we find ourselves with worsening wildfires, drought, decreasing snowpack, and major impacts on our health and economy already taking place with no industry-led solutions that match the scale of the problem.

Instead of throwing up their hands, thousands of ordinary people across the country — and now the world — have organized as a Citizens’ Climate Lobby. This nonpartisan group of volunteers has put persistent, consistent pressure on their representatives to come up with well-informed climate solutions, and that pressure is now starting to take hold. The Energy Innovation Act, which would place a slowly rising price on pollution and return the proceeds to Americans as a dividend, uses the market rather than regulations to address this enormous problem. It’s also a direct result of the commitment of these thousands of volunteers, and a sign that what we do matters. Anyone concerned with these issues is invited to educate themselves and join the conversation at CitizensClimateLobby.org. CLAIRE HERRICK Rio Rancho