Tucson Opinion: Lessons from COVID Could Improve the Climate Local editorials and opinions

Elsewhere, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes are intensifying, and like COVID, these climate-related disasters are causing economic destruction, social upheaval and despair around the world.

The analogies between COVID-19 and climate change cannot be overlooked. Can our experiences in solving one global crisis contribute to solving the other?

As in medical research, investments have been made in climate research for decades. NASA, the Pentagon, universities, and nonprofits have studied the climate – and warned of the dangers and costs of spiraling carbon emissions.

Economists have also studied the costs of climate change and sought the most efficient and effective way to reduce emissions. Nobel laureate William Nordhaus developed a carbon pricing model that 3,600 economists, including Janet Yellin and Ben Bernanke, have endorsed.

From universities to Wall Street, the World Bank’s US Bureau of Administration and Budget has carefully studied policy. The results show that switching energy sources from fossil fuels to clean energy will lead to new, well-paying jobs, investing in infrastructure, saving millions of lives with clean air, and containing rising temperatures that lead to climate disasters.

Along with a dividend to all Americans, this is a plan that will protect low and middle income families from soaring prices and allow us to zero carbon emissions by 2050.

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