PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 17, 2023
If we fail to move quickly enough to reduce global carbon emissions, the impacts of climate change on our environment and many of our planet’s inhabitants are likely to be devastating. President Biden, Gov. Mills and many state and federal legislators “get it” but we need to do more. We need to employ stronger regulations and incentives to ensure that we come very close to zeroing out our greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050, and we need to draw down significant amounts of carbon from our atmosphere for many years thereafter. We need to ensure that our communities, farms and businesses have effectively planned and prepared for the risks and costs associated with extreme weather, flooding, sea-level rise, wildfire and other detrimental impacts of climate change. To accomplish this, we need to immediately develop and implement an aggressive national, science-based climate action plan. ~ David Costello, candidate for the 2024 Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, Brunswick