Colin Woodard’s excellent article (“2021 the Gulf of Maine’s Warmest Year On Record”) was a potent reminder that global warming threatens Maine and its waters in unique and tragic ways.
It did end on a positive note — the observation that “If we are able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a global scale, we will certainly be able to limit the changes we see in the future” — but missing from this statement is how this can possibly be accomplished. Without a strategy, positivity is powerless.
Solving our climate crisis requires strong and sensible policy on a grand scale! Carbon pricing is one mechanism that can stimulate an economy-wide shift to non-fossil fuels. By charging pollution penalty fees to fossil fuel producers based on their products’ potential CO2 emissions, a market signal will be sent to shift the economy toward non-emitting fuels. Fees can be returned to households as “carbon dividends” to assist them through the energy transition.
Sens. Collins and King, who are both in the Senate Climate Solutions Caucus, should move to protect our warming Gulf of Maine with bold and effective policy initiatives such as carbon pricing with dividends. We all need to encourage them to assert leadership on this, the defining issue of our generation.
Cynthia Stancioff
Chesterville
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.