Yes, climate change impacts our health and environment. But let’s not forget the impact on our economy and therefore our livelihoods.
A 2015 Stanford University study shows that if we do nothing to address climate change the costs to deal with its effects will reduce the U.S.’s GDP by 37%. A G30 study published this year predicts a 25% reduction. That means the goods and services we as citizens provide to our communities will be worth approximately 37% to 25% less, a considerable loss to everyone’s livelihood. Neither reduction is something my family wants to experience.
The great thing is, we know how to effectively address the causes of climate change.
In 2019 over 3,500 U.S. economists, including four chairs of the Federal Reserve, 28 Nobel Laureate Economists, 15 Former Chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers, and 39 economists from all of the major universities in Utah all agreed a carbon fee and dividend policy “offers the most cost-effective lever to reduce carbon emissions at the scale and speed that is necessary.”
If we do nothing, we suffer. If we address climate change in the right way, we prosper. I prefer to prosper.
Please contact your members of Congress. Ask them to protect our livelihoods by supporting a carbon fee and dividend policy.
Marc Peterson, Sandy