Dear Climate Denier

Dear Climate Denier,
I don’t really care if you “believe” in climate change. I am not writing to change your mind. I don’t care if you belittle “Global Warming” with funny Facebok posts featuring epic cold spells or roll your eyes at “scientific evidence.”

I am not going to overwhelm you with facts and stats. I am not going to forward you the tid-bits created by 350.org. I know you don’t care what “experts say” and I don’t care that you don’t care. I don’t.

Throughout history there have been people, large groups of people, who both denied scientific evidence and refused to support legislation that would help society evolve to a new way of thinking. You are nothing new.

But you know what happens to those kinds of people? They don’t get their way. Things change whether they believe in the change or not.

Today, the handful of people who don’t believe the earth is round are dismissed as ignorant, but back in the day those people were the vast majority. When the idea first came to light, that the earth was round, there were many who denied it. But denying the roundness of the earth doesn’t change the fact of the matter.

People who denied individuals of color and women the same rights afforded to men used to be a powerful majority. They labeled emancipation an economic disaster. They refused to let blacks sit at the counter. And you know where those people are now? Extinct. Sadly, bigotry still exists, but laws have changed forever and society has evolved.

So it doesn’t matter to me whether you think the world’s climate is changing due to the human behavior of burning fossil fuels and emitting CO2 into the atmosphere. I could care less whether you think this cause and effect scenario is true. 

What I do care about is the reality that we who see the cause and effect (97% of scientists and 53% of the American public) are going to change things around here and stop this nonsense.

Here’s what’s going to happen. We are going to:

1)   TAX (yep, I said it, deal with it) pollution. I could go on with an economic explanation about externalities to prove the validity of this policy, but I’m not going to. I am just giving you a head’s up that it will happen, it should happen, it is the best thing for the economy and America (insert flag wave here.)

2)   CREDIT fossil-free sources of energy. All those take breaks the oil and coal industry get are going to be invested in American jobs that will build the NEW economy. It’s going to be cool and good for all of us.

3)   Do a whole bunch of other stuff to make our cities and communities more amazing and sustainable. You will like it whether you support it or not. Or your grandkids will like it, and you will be extinct.

We who “believe” are working on a radical transformation of our economy to one that puts a priority on fossil fuel reduction. We are going to make it happen, and we don’t need you to believe in it.

Just enjoy the zero emission ride and know that it’s going to be awesome.

Your EcoChix,

Tenaya 

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