Editor,

Crazy weather, you say? Freezing in the east, warm and humid here? Floods and landslides are increasing. Sea stars are suddenly succumbing to a routine virus and dead Cassin’s auklets piling up on our coast having starved to death.

The drought in California is impacting food prices.

What is going on?

Well, 2014 was the warmest year on record. Our ocean is warming, souring and rising. It is 97 percent certain that these changes have a human cause. This is in a 1.5 degree warmer world.

We are on track for a 10-12 degree increase by 2100. Not even imaginable.

This summer in Paris, leaders from 196 countries will meet for another Climate Conference.

For the first time in history, they will not be beginning from scratch because, at long last, the United States showed leadership at the recent conference in Lima, Peru.

For the first time ever, the United States has a plan to take on the most challenging issue threatening our future.

One of the most effective ways to meet the challenge, expand the economy and build good, lasting, well-paying jobs is via a carbon tax and dividend approach.

Which is what CarbonWA proposes to put before the citizens.

This bipartisan strategy has helped British Columbia, making it Canada’s strongest economy.

It has not been implemented in the USA because of fossil fuel’s stranglehold on Congress.

This Washington, however, can lead the way to a healthier, wealthier future and reduce the increasingly destabilizing impacts of carbon pollution.

It’s a whole lot easier than trying to vaccinate sea stars, hand feed auklets or wrestle the jet stream into submission.

Gary Piazzon

Coupeville