This Halloween, are the images of a caravan of refugees walking north giving you thoughts of a zombie apocalypse? Our president hopes you have that image as he falsely portrays them as criminals and terrorists. That’s the type of propaganda to expect from an admirer of despots and dictators. They maintain power through fear and intimidation — like killing journalists.
Truthfully, the mass migration scares me, too. I know there’s good reason to be concerned. Honduras is one of the countries that have been most affected by climate change. The quasi-stationary high amplitude atmospheric wave pattern caused by global warming is making our droughts drier and floods bigger, and I’m afraid that worse may come. These farmers used to be able to harvest twice a year, but they’ve been suffering through years of only one, and this year there was no rainy season!
That doesn’t mean the apocalypse is here and there’s nothing we can do. Congress can put a price on carbon like Canada’s doing. A fee on fossil fuels that starts modestly and rises at a predictable rate with the net revenue returned as equal dividends could treat our children to a stable climate. That’d be the democratic approach to face our fears.
Kevin Leecaster, Salt Lake City