Push candidates to embrace clean energy

To the editor:

Climate change is a leading challenge of our time, with consequences for the economy, national security and health, requiring a thorough discussion of solutions and concrete plans of action from presidential and local political candidates.

Economically, our future lies in developing a clean energy economy and reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Improving technology has dramatically reduced the cost of wind and solar and jobs in the clean energy sector are growing at a rate far surpassing the overall employment rate. These technologies can be cheaper, more efficient, reliable and sustainable.

As for national security, how many more lives are worth the fight over lands and seas that produce oil? The defense department calls climate change a 'threat multiplier” because rising sea levels threaten our largest naval installations, and increasingly intense drought and superstorms create a destabilizing effect around the globe. While many of the presidential candidates recognize the threats of climate change, they are short on laying out plans and goals, such as 50 percent clean energy by 2030.

I agree with Pope Francis, that this is a moral issue, and those of us who see protecting our Earth and source of life energy as part of our spirituality, as part of a healthy future for our next generations, should be pushing our elected officials and business leaders to embrace clean energy futures. We should push our candidates to state their plans for climate action.

Jo Ann McNiel

Cedar Rapids