“Domestic industry is creating ‘tremendous wealth.’ I am not going to lose that wealth. I am not going to lose that wealth on dreams — on wind mills, which frankly, aren’t working too well.”
— President Donald Trump

Scientists have predicted that climate change will result in more frequent and larger fires and storms, along with more extreme weather conditions such as drought and flooding. Some statistics from 2018 support those predictions.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, the cost of fighting fires in 2018 was $2.9 billion, twelve times more than in 1985.

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In 2018 flooding cost us $1.6 billion. The NOAA has calculated that in 2018 there were 14 separate storm events each costing more than $ 1 billion, adding up to a grand total of $91 billion for the year.

Between 2016 and 2018 the annual average of billion dollar disasters was more than twice the long term average.

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Please consider the possibility that we are already losing wealth on dreams. These dreams are not windmills, but are instead a dreamlike denial of the dangers we face from not addressing climate change. We simply cannot afford to continue as we have in the past.

Joyce Wizer
Rifle