Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson visited Alaska, where he told prospective voters, “I do believe that climate change is occurring. I do believe that it is man-caused.” Just last week, the residents of a tiny island village off the Alaskan coast voted to relocate its 600 residents to the mainland due to massive erosion caused by a changing climate.
Johnson said he believes that to solve climate change “there can be and is a free-market approach” that would include a fee on carbon. Such a fee would make pollutants bear a market cost.
“We as human beings want to see carbon emissions reduced significantly,” he said, while acknowledging the U.S. emits only “16 percent of the (global) load” of carbon. “I don’t want to do anything that harms jobs,” he emphasized. But “the rest of the world has to catch up with us.”