Millions of Americans feel malaise about climate change and our government’s inability to deal with it. Malaise refers to a sense of unease and moral ill-being about a problem that threatens us.

Recently, my son told me that he “will not bring a child into this doomed planet.” That is sad! Many young Americans feel this way, and rightly so. Scientists have warned us for 40 years that we may make this world unsurvivable.

Why hasn’t our government acted? Because Big Money intimidates our politicians, and buys their loyalty. Our government has no effective defense against this. Fossil fuel industry money has prevented our government from helping to develop their competition (renewable energy).

The cure for this malaise is to take effective action. We have to take power away from corporations and give it to the people. There are bills in Congress today that would do this, and contacting our Representatives can make this happen.

And importantly, we can reduce climate change by telling our Democratic leaders to put a fee on carbon fuels in the Build Back Better Act.

We can empower ourselves and protect our children by calling or emailing our federal representatives. Let’s do it!

Richard Thomas

Waterville