Letter to the editor: Climate lessons from coronavirus

The covid-19 pandemic is unfolding in ways all too familiar in world crises, ways that eerily reflect our inadequate response to climate change. Experts warn us that early and decisive action is needed. But the warnings are largely ignored until the impacts are overwhelming and draconian measures become necessary.

The slow pace of climate change makes it easy to ignore, whereas the exponential spread of a pandemic quickly reveals the folly of leaders who ignore or minimize the threat. Yet the pandemic will probably subside in a few months, while the climate crisis will still be with us. What then? Can we apply the coronavirus lessons to climate?

Those lessons are clear: Listen to the experts, act early and coordinate across government boundaries. There is a climate solution that heeds those lessons. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act follows scientific and economic guidance by placing a rising national price on carbon beginning next year and returning the proceeds to all Americans. It drives international coordination by enforcing the same price on imports.

Hopefully the coronavirus experience can teach us how to overcome the much slower — but ultimately more lethal — threat of climate change.

Robert R. Mitchell

Murrysville

The writer is a member of Citizens’ Climate Lobby and its liaison to Pennsylvania’s 14th congressional district.