Climate change must speed our use of renewable energy sources. This is why – AOL

Regarding “Wind, solar power do work in extreme weather,” Opinion, Feb. 18:

I think your guest columnist, John Hensley, did a great job exposing the real story behind what happened with wind and solar power systems during recent extreme weather events. In his column, he pointed to the resiliency of wind and solar systems as equal to or greater than carbon-based sources as they became stressed.

But I think we should consider the even larger picture in justifying renewables in extreme weather, namely the lower carbon emissions that help reduce the risk of climate disasters. According to NOAA Chief Scientist Sarah Kapnick’s recent report, “U.S. hit with historic number of billion-dollar disasters in 2023,” via noaa.gov, we have reached a new high. We increased from 22 storms in 2020 to 28 billion-dollar-plus weather disasters in 2023, costing nearly $100 billion.

If we stay with fossil fuels and only slowly creep toward renewable energy systems, climate change will become more costly to all of us in insurance prices, lost homes and increased taxes.

Mark Thompson

Bernardsville

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ climate change: Renewable energy benefits