Letter: Greenhouse Gas Initiative benefits economy, environment

Posted Friday, October 21, 2016 4:34 pm

To the editor:

As a physician for over 30 years, I appreciate how our capacity to monitor levels of blood pressure and cholesterol have led to profound improvements in our health and lifespan.

Along with national recommendations for diagnosis and treatment of weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol from health professionals, we have been given key health information from climate scientists. Climate health experts who monitor the health of our earth find that average temperature is too high, and carbon dioxide emissions are excessive.

When our planet's greenhouse gases are elevated, just as when cholesterol and blood pressure are elevated, we may not be aware of it, until we suddenly suffer from serious health events 10 years downstream — whether those are hurricanes that ravish coastal cities, or heart attacks or strokes injuring an individual. It is good preventative medicine to manage these risks before something devastating happens to our patient, and to our planet.

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This is why I am so pleased that Massachusetts is part of the pollution-reducing Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

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This initiative involves nine states in the Northeast. It sets a cap on carbon pollution and allows industry to find the most economically efficient (least expensive) way to meet that target. This helps to protect our planet and protect our people, while protecting our pocketbooks.

Patients sometimes worry that they cannot afford a healthy lifestyle. When it comes to protecting the environment, we do not have to choose between cleaner air and our wallet. Actually, residents of RGGI states are paying lower power bills than those in other states.

I encourage you to thank Gov. Baker for calling on all the states for a more responsible RGGI limit to carbon pollution. Besides encouraging energy efficiency, Gov. Baker signed a bill to increase our use of offshore wind. Offshore wind has been successful in Europe, and is only beginning to be adopted in our country. By instructing utilities to purchase offshore wind power, we ensure there is a market for this technology, increase jobs, and set a cleaner and safer example for the rest of the country.

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Massachusetts-born historian and author Will Durant once wrote, "The health of nations is more important than the wealth of nations."

With the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, we can have both.

Bruce Nayowith M.D., Great Barrington, The writer is an emergency department physician at Fairview Hospital and a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, 350MA-Berkshires.