Washington Post Editorial Calls for Action on Climate Change

The Washington Post today published an editorial about climate change that pondered the debate about science and said that despite arguments on some data and opinions, if "current trends persist, it's likely that in coming decades the globe's climate will change with potentially devastating effects for billions of people."

The Post disagreed with the opinion that no more money, time and attention should be spent on ways to mitigate the effects of climate change, and wrote "it makes no sense to give up before trying--especially since measured government action could unleash technological innovation that in turn would make the costs [of cutting GHG emissions] far less than predicted."

The Post had two suggestions: "A gradually rising carbon tax made sense even before 'global warming' entered most people's vocabulary. Almost as useful would be a simple cap-and-rebate system that required industry to pay for greenhouse-gas emissions. Either would reduce American dependence on dictators in Saudi Arabia and Venezuela while lowering air pollution of all kinds. Neither would require a complicated government bureaucracy of the kind that has understandably alarmed some people while giving others a pretext for opposition. And if politicians can't bear to stand behind an increased tax, the revenue from either proposal could all be returned in a fair and progressive way."