To the Journal editor:

I’m writing to thank The Mining Journal for endorsing the passage of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Divided Act (H.R. 2307). In an editorial printed on Aug. 14 entitled “Climate report means federal carbon bill should be approved,” the Journal cited a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to highlight the dangers posed by human-caused climate change and ask U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, to support H.R. 2307.

The great majority of the most qualified atmospheric scientists support the IPCC report conclusions, which include it is “unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land” and that a solution lies in “strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to limit climate change.”

The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is urgent because the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration at its Mauna Loa Hawaii observatory reached 420ppm in May — the highest level in at least 3 million years. NASA reports 2020 ended up tied with 2016 as the warmest year in terms of global average temperature since records began in the 1880s and the Earth’s average temperature has risen more than 2 degrees F since 1880. This warming world will exacerbate the spread of diseases like COVID-19, increasing the probability of more deadly pandemics in the future.

Other threats posed by this dangerous climate change are an increased probability of dangerous weather events, including more extreme heat waves (the temperature in southern British Columbia reached as high as 121 degrees in June), flooding, and drought/wildfires. In fact, a recent World Meteorological Organization report stated weather disasters are striking the world four to five times more often and causing seven times more damage than in the 1970s.

Urgent action to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions/carbon pollution is necessary to slow this destructive climate change. H.R. 2307 would place a gradually rising fee on carbon pollution that will help the U.S. get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Revenue from the fee would be distributed evenly to all Americans in the form of monthly payments.

I thank the Journal for (its position on) H.R. 2307 and urge your readers to go to cclusa.org/call and follow the listed scripts to phone and encourage Rep Bergman as well as U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters to support the EICDA and other actions to slow climate change.