First the good news: Utah solar energy installation jobs are growing rapidly in Utah, providing meaningful employment that doesn’t require a college degree. The bad news: an oil spill extending for 17 miles is polluting Willow Creek Canyon near Escalante, through the Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument. This spill is just one more sad example of why we need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. What will be the cost of cleanup? Will the polluted land ever truly be reclaimed?
Pope Francis recently advocated for the abandonment of fossil fuels and chastised climate change deniers. A prominent climate scientist described this summer’s worldwide heat wave as “absolutely gobsmackingly bananas.” Compounding the hottest summer on record, heavy downpours like the one that turned New York City streets into raging rivers are becoming increasingly frequent. It’s not as if we’ve reached a plateau or “new normal”; rather we’re enduring a steady increase in climate disasters each year.
We need to go beyond “adapting” to climate change to combating it by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels with a carbon fee and dividend, electrifying our buildings, and reforming America’s clean energy permitting process. I encourage you to explore these practical climate solutions.
Jean M. Lown, Logan