To the editor:

An entertaining and dramatic overview of climate change was given by New Yorker Heather Harpham in Kansas University’s Murphy Hall on March 26. The multimedia one-person play is entitled “Burning.” At one point, she sat on a large ball, Earth, which was supposedly too hot, interrupting her contemplation of Bush, Obama, EPA, with “ouches.” It prompted comments from students: “We’ve got to do something.”

We are doing something. Each state and city is legislating carbon emission standards. See Kansas Renewable Energy standards, H.B.2373, or Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory for the City and Community of Lawrence, Kan.

In the Houston Chronicle, Jan. 6, the University of Texas’ Michael Webber points to the present as time to put a tax on carbon emissions at the federal level. Even Exxon Mobil CEO, Rex Tillerson has gone on record saying he would prefer a carbon tax to cap and trade. Because oil prices are down, the proposed $10 to $25 per ton of CO2  is seen as affordable by domestic oil producers, with an estimated increase of 25 cents per gallon of gasoline at the pump. The $150 billion this tax would raise would be refunded to citizens to cancel increased energy costs such as electricity.

On Lawrence Earth Day, Saturday in South Park, I hope you will stop by the Citizens Climate Lobby table to discuss and perhaps write a note to one of your members of Congress, urging action on this vital matter.