Letter to Editor: Please Vote Yes on I-732 to Address Climate Change

— from Chris and Chom Graecen —

Firstly we would like to thank fellow islanders for gathering signatures and signing in support of the grassroots climate change initiative that is now successfully on the ballot as I-732.

Please now join us in voting “YES.” I-732 will reduce Washington State’s greenhouse gas emissions by taxing polluters such as oil refineries and coal power plants – and will balance this with a lower the sales tax paid at the cash register, a Working Families Tax Rebate to provide up to $1,500 a year for 460,000 low-income households, and a reduction in the B&O tax on manufacturing. This revenue-neutral measure offers our best chance to start to seriously address Washington’s contributions to climate change, and serve as a bipartisan model for the rest of the nation.

Global temperatures in 2015 were the highest on record, and these were topped only by record setting temperatures in the first half of 2016. If anything, actual climate change appears to be moving faster than climate models predict, and these climate models predict that unchecked greenhouse gas emissions put us on course for a climate outside of human experience. For our children and grandchildren — vote yes, and talk to friends and neighbors.