Has it caught your attention that there’s been an increase in travel and shipping as the economy picked up in 2021? Whenever there was a story in the paper on the record number of visitors to state and national parks, I thought of the carbon pollution associated with it.

Similarly, when more freighters and trucks are moving more goods, we get more emissions. The results are in folks: As the nation’s economy rebounded last year, our carbon emissions grew by even more, up 6.2%.

But at COP 26 in Glasgow, didn’t we commit to halving our carbon emissions this decade, and reaching net zero by 2050? Are we over committing and living too luxuriously?

I argue that we aren’t. We’re just not asking Congress to speed up the decarbonization of the economy. Let’s make it clear to our elected officials that it’s time to live up to the promises we’re making to the world.

We don’t need to change how we live, we simply need Congress to help trigger a shift in the way our energy is produced. Please take the simple step of writing our elected officials through cclusa.org/take-action

 

John O’Bryan

Brunswick