Lyndon Johnson said, “If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we … (need to) leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it.”
Never were we more in danger of failing at this than now.
Colorado is a paradise. But we are increasingly living in a tinderbox. One in 14 trees is dead in Colorado forests, according to the Colorado Forest Service’s annual survey released last February, an increase of 30 percent since 2010.
Our forests are being devastated by the mountain pine and spruce beetles, insects that used to be kept in check by our long cold winters, but no more.
We need to pay attention here. We are at risk of destroying not only the beauty of our state, but our ability to live here at all.
Do you know that 80 percent of Coloradans rely on forest watersheds for their drinking water?
Global warming is real, and it’s in our backyard. We need our lawmakers to take action. I think the best idea out there is the carbon fee and dividend plan. (citizensclimatelobby.org).
It is bipartisan and practical. It will help us develop clean energy and move away from fossil fuels without lots of government regulation.
Please encourage our members of Congress (Scott Tipton and Cory Gardner) to investigate the carbon fee and dividend proposal. It’s a free-market solution that will address climate change.
Deborah Lycan
Durango