As someone who describes myself as a climate activist, I appreciate newspaper’s publishing of Colin Woodard’s series, “May Day: Gulf of Maine in Distress.”

Throughout my life, I have known that lobsters and clams are important cash crops for Maine. In fact, my cousin makes his living lobstering.

For years whoever creates marketing for this state has relied on the beauty of the coast as an economic driver. “Maine Vacationland” really translates into “Welcome to Maine, tourist. See a lighthouse and eat a lobster.”

The mud flats at Maquoit Bay described in Part 4 of Woodard’s series are certainly not as picturesque as the current pictures used to advertise Maine as a vacation destination. To read about lobsters’ potential demise because of ocean warming adds to my overall fears for our planet.

Several places within the series uses the subjective tense with verbs such as might or could. That suggests we still have time for action to stop this destruction.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby has a proposal at the ready called Carbon Fee and Dividend. It was written by George Schultz, President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of the Treasury. It would pay out a dividend equally to all households from fees levied on fossil fuels at point of extraction.

The proposal would be beneficial in multiple ways. First, it would drastically reduce carbon emissions; second, it would put extra money in everyone’s pocket. Let’s use these supplemental funds to buy a lobster dinner.

To learn more about Citizens’ Climate Lobby, people can check out its website, citizensclimatelobby.org. Hopefully reading the information on this site will convince people to contact members of our congressional delegation and request their support for this initiative.

Linda Woods

Oakland