Opinion: Cap-and-trade is only the start of California’s effort to fight climate change

To the editor: Bjorn Lomborg, the “skeptical environmentalist,” is really an economist first. He thinks our “carbon-cutting commitments will be expensive for the state while achieving slightly more than nothing for the planet.” (“California is handling climate change all wrong,” July 20)

The purpose of cap and trade is to help fund the state’s research and development programs and to incentivize private innovation. Lomborg seems to think California is deluded that this is the be-all-end-all solution to climate change. It is only a starting point, and we are seeing the trend spread, like so many other California trends.

Cap and trade is a means to help “develop green technologies so cheap they could out-compete fossil fuels.” Lomborg offers no alternative means of his own, and he appears to be the one who is “all wrong.”

Kathy Harty, Sierra Madre

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To the editor: While Lomborg cogently outlines the ramifications for Californians of our state’s “green” pursuits, he neglects to mention the gorilla in the room: population growth.

So long as the population of our Earth continues to grow, demand for the benefits of modern society will only increase, further stressing the resources available to provide such benefits. That this conflict will be forced upon us appears self-evident, given our inability to reach agreement on issues of even minor importance compared to that of our species’ survival.

Walt Kelly, in the Pogo comic strip, put it best: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Louis Nevell, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I commend The Times for giving Lomborg a voice. He is one of the few environmentalists who takes a measured view of climate change and offers practicable remedies based on real-world analysis.

Since he dares to suggest ideas that are counter to the current anti-industrial consensus, he is often marginalized by the scientific and media communities. Well done, L.A. Times.

Michael Napoliello, Manhattan Beach

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