Letter points blame at burning fossil fuels

Burning fossil fuels is no fairy tale: it's the cause of our destabilized climate system.

Climate scientists have shown that due to our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuel, the impact of climate change, under a business as usual scenario, will be severe. Average global temperatures will rise between 7-9°F by 2100. We must contain the warming to the ~4°F threshold scientists think is manageable www.ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/.

We could have all our energy from low-carbon sources by 2050 using wind, water, solar and nuclear power (http://news.stanford.edu.).

People claim that projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline will create tens of thousands of jobs throughout the manufacturing industry. Could it? Then why does the pipeline go directly to the Gulf Coast for export?

Currently there are less than a million permanent coal, oil and gas jobs nationwide and 3 million "green" jobs. By 2030, there will be over half a million wind jobs alone. The XL pipeline jobs are mostly temporary.

(Please see US Department of Labor: Mine Safety and Health at a Glance, www.msha.gov, "A Broader Look at America's Fossil Fuels Jobs Boom," Blog Post: Economic Modelling Specialists International. www.economicmodeling.com, US Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment in Green Goods and Services 2011, www.bls.gov/news.release/ggqcew.htm, "20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy's Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply," www.20percentwind.org and www.ilr.cornell.edu.

Moreover, expanding fossil fuels from unconventional sources like tar sands (that will use that pipeline) are destabilizing our climate.

To transition off of fossil fuels and leave no one in the cold and dark, we can use the market-based revenue-neutral tool of pricing carbon at the source and returning the dividend to all American households. A border tax adjustment protects our domestic manufacturers and farmers.

If we have the will, we can apply our technology to transition to a low-carbon energy economy with millions of permanent jobs within ten years www.citizensclimatelobby.org.

Now back to fairy tales: kids, reading Red Riding Hood, know it's the wolf who is in grandma's bed. Our wolf is the excess CO2 in the atmosphere.

Protect our ability to grow peas and other crops! Urge Doc Hastings to enact a carbon fee and dividend for a happy ending.

Shirley Lucas and Alexandra Amonette

Richland