How is this for carbon messaging?
Chris Wiegard
302 Posts

Letter that I just sent to the Winchester Star newspaper in Virginia-

please critique-

Dear Editor-
I was saddened by your news article on the EPA removing the last traces of climate science from their website. Yes, fossil fuels are no longer mentioned as a factor in climate change, even though the science dates from the 1890s.

We cannot really fix problems by sweeping them under the rug. Problems have a way of crawling back out, know what I mean? Climate change is one of those things that won't disappear just because we want it to.

A better approach to this would be for us to accept the reality we see, but then debate the best course of action to deal with it. There are many paths to successfully reducing the carbon emissions from fossil fuels that drive climate change. If you don't like paying for clean energy incentives, then impose fees on fossil fuels. If you don't like the money from the fees spent on flood control or energy efficiency, demand that the fees be refunded to you in a dividend. If you don't like China pumping out twice as much carbon as we are pumping, then support a foreign pollution fee. It is better to light a candle than say "it's not dark."

3 Replies

@Chris Wiegard
Hi Chris. Thanks for your LTE. Would you mind if I adapted it to submit to the Denver Post?

Chris Wiegard
302 Posts

@Chris Hoffman feel free, there is no copyright on my talking points! I saw this same associated press article in a different newspaper, and I submitted an LTE that just deplored the failure of the Trump administration to engage on climate. But I had second thoughts, so I found the same article in the Winchester Star and tried to talk more about the RIGHT approach rather than just criticizing the WRONG approach.

@Chris Wiegard
Thanks, Chris! I very much like how you emphasized the right approach.

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