Happy to see action on climate change

I’m excited! Great gifts are coming to Earth and here to Washington.

At the Paris Climate Conference, 196 countries reached agreement on the most important problem in my opinion facing the planet: global warming. According to experts, if the Earth heats up more than 2 degrees Celsius by 2050 (presently we’re headed for a 5 degree increase) we’ll experience epic droughts, famine, more acidic oceans, loss of sea-life, mass extinctions, deforestation, and still unknown impacts on human life. These countries’ pledges to reduce their use of fossil fuels will hold global warming to a 3 to 3.5 degree increase.

According to Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, this isn’t enough, but at least it’s a start! Bill Gates and 20 of his billionaire friends pledged monies to work on global warming! Tesla developer Elon Musk remarked that all countries need a “revenue neutral carbon tax”, which delighted me since the local Citizens Climate Lobby group, together with CarbonWa.org, have been gathering signatures to put a “revenue-neutral carbon tax” on the state ballot in 2016! It will tax industrial carbon emissions while lowering state sales tax 1 percent. Though not totally solving global warming, these plans are at least a start. As the old saying goes, “it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”

Are you doing the right thing and heading the right direction? I think we are!

This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Happy to see action on climate change."