Letter: Urge Inslee to declare a climate emergency

Editor,

Don Brunell in a March 4 Sound Off column gave a lot of numbers regarding the price of acting on our climate crisis.

As Mark Twain observed, “There are lies, damned lies and statistics,” the latter are called lies of omission.

What Brunell failed to mention were the hidden costs of inaction on both our financial, physical and psycho-social health.

He also neglected to note the awakening of the business community. GoldmanSachs recently advised their investors to sell Exxon stock saying, “The best reason to divest fossil fuel stock is that you’d like to help preserve a livable planet. Another reason is so that you won’t lose your money.”

Wells Fargo has committed to accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy. JP Morgan Chase has decided not to fund drilling in the Arctic.

The world’s largest investment firm, Black Rock Investments, recommends that we all must understand that, “climate change is becoming an investment risk.

We are on a fundamental up-end due to it.”

Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos pledged $10 billion to fighting carbon pollution.

These not so greenies realize that the dirty fuel age is over and a just transition is necessary.

Brunell states we “must find better ways to reduce CO2”, but offers no suggestions of his own.

No doubt he gets paid well for promoting the dirty energy industry’s do nothing approach.

How is that working? In reality we have solutions; 100 of them are assessed in the Drawdown Project.

You can check them out and then use MIT’s En-roads tool to see which approaches have the largest impacts.

We all know that a problem ignored grows. If we had followed the scientists’ advice 40 years ago, we’d be living clean, sustainably and healthy.

If we had started reducing carbon pollution 10 years ago, it would have required a 4 percent reduction annually.

We did not act so carbon pollution grew, and now it requires a 10 percent reduction annually to avoid catastrophic impacts.

Another important strategy for overcoming the political gridlock created by this malevolent industry is called a citizen’s assembly, a cross section of citizens representing major stakeholders who will determine the best strategies for dealing effectively with the crisis.

Their findings are then passed to the legislature to enact. It is a proven method for solving highly contentious issues.

Call Gov. Jay Inslee at 360-902-4111 and urge him to declare a climate emergency and convene a citizen’s assembly.

Gary Piazzon

Coupeville