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Letter: Call couldn’t be louder

“Low flows, dazed fish, stunted crops, discouraged ranchers, idle fly-fishing guides, early cattle auctions” – that’s just the latest catalog of drought-related miseries around the Western Slope, according to your story about last week’s meetings of Colorado River water managers.
Meanwhile, every day brings more news of wildfires, smoke, ash and the personal hardships experienced by impacted residents.
It’s enough to make us forget how crappy the ski season was, with economic impacts on employees and employers alike. And it tends to distract our attention from this summer’s record heat waves on four continents.
This is what climate change looks and feels like. Each of these incidents on its own is just weather, but together they’re part of a climate trend. Looking at global average temperatures, the last four years have been the hottest four years on record.
Drought and fires are the local signal that climate change is happening. If we keep ignoring it, it will get much worse.
But it is reversible. This is a call to action.
The single most effective thing you can do to help stop climate change — you, personally — is to get active with one of the national organizations campaigning to “put a price on carbon.” Carbon pricing harnesses the power of the market, makes everyone part of the solution, and bypasses liberal-vs.-conservative dogma. If the U.S. adopts carbon pricing, other countries will be forced to follow suit.
Where to start? Google “Citizens’ Climate Lobby.” I can vouch for CCL’s effectiveness and the way it empowers volunteers such as myself.
Dave Reed
Carbondale


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