Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

To the Editor:
We have been reading, seeing and talking about climate for some time now, but what do we know about solutions? We need solutions now because the majority of taxpayers are concerned about more extreme weather events that are lasting longer even in Tennessee. Droughts/fires like the one we recently had in Roan Mountain and flooding which often includes tornadoes are adversely affecting Tennesseans with loss of lives, trauma, costly damages, rebuilding expenses as well as missed school days. Additionally, Drew Costley of the Associated Press reports that experts on climate change and infectious disease agree that a warming planet will likely lead to increased risk for the emergence of new viruses and other pathogens that spread from animals to people.
Over ten years ago I was diagnosed with lyme disease which I had likely been exposed to via deer ticks in Georgia when I visited my family. With long-term irreversible changes in a warmer Tri-Cities, we can expect to see more ticks and other animals that carry disease migrate to these mountains as our climate changes. Is it any wonder that many of us have anxiety even depression about climate change? Once we realize that we can and should use our voices to talk about solutions, we see solutions everywhere.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology has partnered with Climate Interactive to create a global climate simulator that shows all the many ways we can help mitigate climate change now and in the short-term ahead. Citizens Climate Lobby is focused on informing citizens and lobbying legislators about the most effective and least intrusive lever or action which is a carbon fee and cash back to all households. There are many features that appeal to both sides of the aisle. It doesn’t grow government, and the polluters pay the fees that are returned to each household monthly in order to offset the expenses that are passed on to us as consumers. There is also a protection for businesses with a border carbon adjustment which is presently being discussed by both parties. The border fee would help our businesses in this country and hold other countries like Russia, China and India accountable for polluting the atmosphere. Most economists agree that this H.R. 2307 would be a viable option for us.
Thus far 1,333 businesses; 53 education institutions; 172 faith groups; 1018 prominent individuals including Katherine Hayhoe, an Evangelical Christian, Climate Scientist; 160 local governments; 33 news media; and 326 non profits nation-wide have endorsed this bill. Locally the following businesses, non profits, and faith groups have endorsed H.R.2307: Artisans Villiage, Brown’s Hardware and Grocery, Cranberries Café, Dos Gatos Coffee Bar, First Presbyterian Church in Elizabethton, Friends of Roan Mountain, Green Earth Mountain Retreat, Green Ilama, Greenher Landscaping, Hoffman Composting, Krazy Krepes, Main Street Café and Catering, Nelson Fine Art, Purelife Chiropractic, Ripshin Mountain Studio Apartment, Russ Swanay Real Estate, and Tennessee Farm Winegrowers Alliance. There are 96 co-sponsors in Congress of the Carbon Fee and Dividend bill and we all agree with Ms. J.E. Hyder in her Letter to the Editor on May 4 about the downside to our earth regarding use and disuse. God intends for us to be stewards of our beautiful earth. We are seeing evidence of temperature rise, depletion of animals and plants in the seas, fire seasons lasting longer and with more intense fires, pollution and heat waves claiming more lives, and crop and livestock failures due to drought and flooding. We know the solutions — let’s take action for our families, neighbors, Carter County, and Tennessee. Talk about climate change with your neighbors and legislators. Ask your legislators to sponsor H.R.2307.

Norma Morrison
Roan Mountain