This letter is in reference to the Forum entitled “Preparing for local fallback from climate change” from Sept. 22.

I would like to compliment the authors (John M. Mishler and Sigrid R.E. Fischer-Mishler) for their reflections on local and statewide responses to a warming planet, with their special emphasis on water supplies.

I want to backstop this column with a plea to encourage national/systemic responses to global warming. Namely, we continue to pretend that the byproducts of combustion cost nothing to nobody as we burn fossil fuels and release CO2 and particulate pollution into the air!

Sadly, there is a definite cost, as warming triggers droughts and higher CO2 levels cause ocean acidification with adverse effects on plankton as well as on food fish. The state of Maine has budgeted $140 million this year for coping with sea level change; this year, Massachusetts has $2 billion in its state budget for such. Multiply that one aspect of global warming by every state and country with coastline and the numbers are staggering.

The easiest and fastest way to have an impact on fossil fuel use is to place a fee on the producers at the source of fossil fuel extraction. This proposal is found in House bill HR 2307, which also includes rebating this carbon fee back to the citizenry. Similar measures are found in the Senate budget reconciliation.

Now is the time to act. Would you consider calling or writing Sens. King and Collins and your federal representative? Tools from the Citizens’ Climate Lobby can be found here to make this a very simple and fast task: community.citizensclimate.org/tools#action-tools.