Climate change is the defining existential threat of our time. It’s impact will be felt across society, in the economy, in geopolitics, in farming, in housing, in health. Too often, climate change is addressed as a singular issue with a singular approach when in reality climate change represents a diverse set of problems and a diverse set of competing and compounding interests. So the response must be diverse and approached from many perspectives.
While climate change has been viewed as a partisan issue, the necessity of confronting it is being realized across the political spectrum, especially among younger demographics who will being dealing with it for decades to come.
In seeking to respond to climate change we mean both the causes and the effects. Many call for draconian reductions in energy production and use, in travel and in agriculture with the belief we can reverse climate change if we act fast enough. The time for stopping climate change has long since passed and might have been possible were it not for the a misguided environmentalism movement and an obstructionist fossil fuel industry, often working in tandem. Environmentalists cannot be trusted to protect the environment. While reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is important, we must now also be reacting to the damage climate change is causing.
Stopping climate change will require changes in transportation, energy production, housing and construction, and agriculture, as well as investments in carbon capture and perhaps further geoengineering projects. We will pursue all avenues with a focus on investing in and developing new technologies and businesses as well as changing market incentives to put them more in line with the preservation of the planet for human habitation.
What Needs Done:
- We must adapt to the damage climate change is already causing.
- Reach net-zero global carbon emissions within three decades.
- Remove carbon from the atmosphere to achieve negative carbon emissions.
What I’ll Do:
- Repeal HB6, preserve our nuclear power plants but stop subsidizing out of state coal power plants.
- Invest in new nuclear energy sources.
- Institute a carbon tax.
- Focus on reforestation and developing a lumber industry as alternative agriculture once ethanol goes out of use.
- Invest in intensive farming techniques including GMOs and vertical farms.
- Invest in sustainable housing and rehabilitation of existing structures.
- Deploy a smart electric grid.
- Invest in Carbon Capture technology and businesses.
- Invest in clean public transportation.
Sam Grady For Ohio 