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To solve climate change, we must act

Mark Reynolds
Iowa City Climate Lobby

When it comes to climate change, most Americans are like the passengers on a jetliner wanting to arrive safely at their destination, thinking there’s no need to be involved with actually flying the plane. The “people in charge,” surely, have things under control.

Lately, however, the plane has experienced a rough ride:

  • Christmas Day, the temperature at Santa’s workshop — aka the North Pole — approached the melting point of 32 degrees, about 40 degrees above average for that time of year.
  • Floods, like those that struck Louisiana and North Carolina last year, are happening as a result of unprecedented rainfall measured in feet rather than inches.

All this turbulence is prompting some passengers to rise from their seats, walk to the cockpit and check with the pilot. However, they are shocked to see no one at the controls.


So how do we avoid crashing into a mountainside?

It’s time for the passengers to start flying the plane, and by passengers, we mean citizens. This entails setting aside cynicism about our government and engaging with our representatives in Congress. Government will respond to the will of the people, provided the people tell the government what we want.

Engaging with our government requires us to seek common ground between Republicans and Democrats. We can find common ground by listening as much as we talk. And if we listen, we find the greatest concern about acting on climate change is the impact it could have on our economy, the fear that jobs will be lost.

We can alleviate those fears with a market-based solution that holds polluters accountable for damage to our air, water and climate. Such a solution needs to be revenue neutral, preventing it from increasing the size of government. A steadily rising fee on carbon, with all revenue returned to households, would decrease greenhouse gas emissions while boosting the economy.

A study from Regional Economic Models Inc. looked at such a policy, whereby a fee on the carbon dioxide in fuels would increase $10 per ton each year. Border tariffs on imports from nations lacking a similar carbon price were applied to maintain a level playing field for American businesses. Within 20 years, the study found that emissions would drop more than 50 percent. The study also found that the policy would add 2.8 million jobs, due primarily to recycling the carbon fee revenue back to households.


Hopeful signs emerged in 2016 with the creation of the bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus. The caucus creates a space for Republicans and Democrats to have an honest dialogue about ways to reduce the risks we face in a warming world.

In the coming year, as more citizens interact with their representatives, we can grow the ranks within the Climate Solutions Caucus and reach the critical mass necessary to introduce and pass bipartisan legislation.

None of this can happen unless we take control of the plane and put it back on course. As Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart once said, “We aren't passengers on spaceship Earth, we're the crew. We aren't residents on this planet, we're citizens. The difference in both cases is responsibility.”

Mark Reynolds is executive director of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.