The “Ways to reduce your energy usage“ letter (Feb. 15) contains common sense suggestions, but the worldwide scientific community has made it clear than individual actions, as well as local/statewide actions, will be far too little far too late to prevent “catastrophic” global warming, which, according to the National Academy of Sciences, will result in “global economic collapse” followed by “societal collapse.”

We need national legislation with a global impact. We can swiftly tax fossil fuels out of existence, and by giving all that tax money to the taxpayers, we’ll increase our GDP by $75-80 billion annually. It won’t cost consumers or taxpayers anything.

According to The Economist, it has worked as promised in British Columbia for the past decade, and they have zero greenhouse gas emissions, lower taxes, lower energy bills and the fastest-growing economy of any Canadian province. It has a whopping 83 percent public approval rating there, according to The Economist.

They’ve used a policy called Carbon Fee and Dividend, which is an annually increasing carbon pollution fee that’s distributed to every taxpayer in monthly “dividend” checks. Everyone gets the same amount.

According to Scientific American, it increases every year. And as fossil fuels get more expensive and clean energy prices keep plummeting as they scale up until they’re nearly free, you make more money every year if you buy clean energy with your “dividend” money, according to citizensclimatelobby.org.

Critically, Carbon Fee and Dividend also will have a global “domino” effect, using market forces to make other nations cut their emissions as much and as fast as we do. See how it works at the volunteer Citizens Climate Lobby website.

Pete Kuntz,

Northglenn, CO