Let’s push for a cleaner environment

Published 1:35 pm Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Opening a cooling center in Auburn is a kind and considerate move, as is the reminder to keep hydrated.

Once, when I was younger, I almost crashed a car on a very hot day, when I forgot to drink water and got heat stroke. We ignore the warnings of doctors and other scientists at our peril. That was in Los Angeles in 1975, when the smog over cities was so dense you could taste it. Then federal law started requiring catalytic converters to reduce emissions from vehicle exhaust. The air gradually got better.

We still have pollution, especially in hot weather, and you can only see some of it. Chemical emissions from burning fossil fuels in vehicles, factories, and small motors get stuck in stagnant hot air. This pollution increases asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, heart disease, dementia and more. There is no question, medically, that using cleaner energy sources like solar, wind, and electric vehicles is better for our health.

Pollution-related health problems cost us money. A report just published by the International Monetary Fund says that American taxpayers and businesses are losing $700 billion a year in increased health care costs, spill cleanup, disaster relief and tax deductions for fossil fuel companies.

Many conservative economists recommend putting a fee on polluting fuels, a gradually increasing fee on oil, coal and natural gas, with all the money sent back through IRS and Social Security to consumers’ pockets. Two-thirds of households would get more money back from the government than we would pay in increased fuel costs.

British Columbia put a fee on fossil fuels, and people generally approve. The economy has stayed strong, and polluting emissions went down.

I am a member of Citizens Climate Lobby, which is asking Congress to take a free market approach to climate and pollution, an approach that stimulates business and gives consumers more freedom of choice.

– Louise Stonington