To the Journal editor:

The Mining Journal recently reported the Marquette County Board’s unanimous resolution requesting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Legislature to declare Michigan’s Great Lakes shoreline a disaster area and seek federal aid for recent severe storm damage and shoreline erosion.

Chairman Gerald Corkin and fellow Commissioner Johnny DePetro, respectively, explained, “We need to get some aid from the feds or the state,”and “We (have) got to get everybody on board with us.”

While agreeing with this political request for federal action on this predictable climate change “disaster,” I suggest the board should now also pass a resolution asking our lawmakers to enact effective climate change legislation to lessen and prevent future climate disasters in Marquette County.

About seven years ago, in December 2013, the “Climate Adaptation Plan For Marquette County Michigan” published by the Superior Watershed Partnership, considered the future impacts of climate change and predicted that because of warming winters and summers in the U.P., there would probably be an “[I]ncrease in irregular, high intensity winter storm events”…and…“[I]ncreased wave action on Lake Superior leading to shoreline erosion.”(pages 35,36).

With great foresight, this 2013 plan documented the risks for future extreme weather events because of climate change, stating “[T]he effects of climate change in Marquette County are tangible and measurable and will change the face of the County in irreversible ways”; and optimistically listed a goal to “reduce dependency on fossil fuels for energy in Marquette County.” (pages 42-47,59)

Let’s not wait another seven years to see how many more disaster aid requests we might have to make! Right now, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, a bipartisan, revenue neutral bill pending in the US House, would impose a fee on carbon at point of extraction to encourage market-driven innovation of clean energy technologies to reduce fossil fuel greenhouse gas emissions; and return that fee in monthly cash dividends to American households.

So, county board members, please let’s “get everybody on board with us” and send another resolution to our lawmakers demanding they act now to support this bipartisan climate change bill, before the next predictable disaster.