I credit John Balentine for recognizing the seriousness of climate change and the inadequacy of fear as a motivator. However his claim that technology alone will solve the problem that technology created is dubious. We need an array of solutions.

Not all conservatives are throwing up their hands. The eminent conservatives of the Climate Leadership Council have also proposed a carbon dividend plan that is steadily gaining traction.

And not all liberals are fear-mongering.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a bipartisan group of ordinary citizens working to create the political will for change at the federal level by advocating for carbon fee and dividend, a form of carbon pricing that returns the fees to America households in the form of monthly dividend checks. It is a market-driven solution that more than 3,500 economists believe essential to solving the climate problem. The bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (L.D. 763), endorsed by U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, is just such a solution: a powerful and effective first step in solving the problem. A Senate companion bill will likely be introduced this session.

This is indeed a rational and hopeful approach.

Sarah Braik
Portland