We have faced unprecedented threats and disruptions in the past few years. Nothing feels stable or predictable anymore. We’ve learned to be resilient instead. That will help us solve the challenges of climate change.
In facing down the pandemic, we found new capacity to adapt, to collaborate, to rely on each other. Companies changed what they produce and how they operate, sometimes in a matter of days. Individuals changed how they live, work, eat, shop and communicate.
It shows that we, and our way of life, are not as set in stone as we think. We can shift things to protect ourselves, our country and our people from suffering. We can rise to the occasion.
We all use energy. We all want economic opportunity. We all need a healthy environment. These are common priorities. We can work out solutions together if we stop being scared of climate change, stop blaming each other and get into problem- solving mode.
Solutions abound. We’re making electricity from rays of sunshine and gusts of wind, on our roofs and in our pastures, at tiny home scale and utility scale. How cool is that? I drive a car that plugs into a 120V outlet in my wall just like my coffee pot.
Pueblo’s 140-year-old steel mill now makes critical U.S. rail infrastructure out of recycled steel, using solar power. In a carbon-constrained world, green steel offers an inspiring story line and a competitive market advantage.
Delta Brick & Climate in Montrose manufactures beautiful ceramic tile from sediment that clogs the Paonia Reservoir. The company dredges the muck, which increases local agricultural flows and offers a locally sourced supply chain for Delta Brick. The company plans to expand its value proposition by capturing coal bed methane to power the kiln.
Many of our local agriculture producers are choosing regenerative farming and ranching techniques, building healthier carbon-rich soils and bringing tastier food to our markets, where consumers willingly pay a little bit more to help rebuild the earth.
We are choosing our future right now, as stewards of the environment and also the economy. The best climate solutions make us better at both.
I volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a nonpartisan, nonprofit grassroots organization that focuses on national policies to address climate change. Our climate solution is a fee on carbon pollution from fossil fuels, phased in gently to protect the economy. The proceeds are returned to Americans in equal per-capita monthly “carbon cash back” dividends to offset price increases for working families. A border carbon adjustment protects U.S. businesses from unfair competition and pressures trade partners like China to clean up its own emissions.
A carbon fee and dividends aren’t the only climate solutions we’ll need, but economists and scientists see them as essential steps toward a net-zero future.
The climate is changing before our eyes. The opportunities of the clean energy economy carry less risk and more reward than the status quo. A lot of new things have to be invented, built, sold, mined and recycled as we transition to a decarbonized economy. World markets are hungry for clean-energy solutions. Will we lead in those markets or be dragged behind? We can’t own the future by clinging to the past.
This Earth Day, choose the future you want and work toward it. It takes five minutes to tell your members of Congress what you want (https://citizensclimatelobby.org/write-your-representative). Ask for carbon pricing or more renewables or cleaner fossil fuels or faster action or whatever tops your own climate-solution priority list.
Then join Durango’s Earth Day celebration on April 23, with a parade down Main Avenue at 10:30 a.m. and a gathering at Rotary Park from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring speakers, EV ride-and-drive and music. Dress up as your favorite climate solution, maybe a ray of sunshine or a Delta Brick or a carbon dividend check - or something else entirely. Solutions abound!
Kathy Fackler volunteers with the Durango Chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
