Reading your articles on the various nominees for the incoming Trump administration, I was struck by the apparent philosophy that climate change must now be ignored, and this will cost us nothing because climate change does not inflict any damage on our lives or our property.

I disagree with this nonsensical perspective, and I was heartened that Seth Borenstein did too in his article, “Climate change goosed hurricane wind strength by 18 mph since 2019, study says,” Nov. 20. So climate change has no costs? Try telling that to the people who lost $80 billion and over 200 family members from Helene and Milton. Clearly, climate change played a role in pushing those numbers up.

Fossil fuel industries enjoy a privilege we call “externalized cost.” The profits are retained, but the costs are paid by the victims of climate disasters. We should either end the subsidies to these companies, or we should impose fees on fossil fuels and then return the money to those who pay the fees, ourselves.

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Maybe we can return to this idea four years from now. In the meantime, we should at least resist the efforts to make us pretend that there is no cost.