I picked $100+. I’d pay that each month just to reduce the number of fires and 105+ degree days I have to suffer through each year. I used to really anticipate fun summers and outdoor living, but now I have a bit of dread each year when the warm weather starts up, wondering if I’m going to be trapped indoors for weeks at a time by dangerous levels of smoke or extreme heat. It didn’t used to be like this, and I’d pay to keep it from getting worse.
And as has already been pointed out, many people are already paying more due to climate change. Our water rates have increased. That’s true for a lot of people. I’m not sure what’s going to happen when Lake Powell and/or Lake Mead reach “dead pool”, which is looking pretty likely, and huge parts of the west lose their power and water supplies, but I bet it’s going to cost residents in several states more than 100 bucks a month to deal with it.
For me, the investments I’ve made to cut back on my use of fossil fuel energy have all saved me money. It’s does cost more upfront, but this poll is framed in terms of monthly costs. We bought a rooftop solar power system a few years ago, and it wasn’t exactly cheap, but it was affordable for us, and now we pay nearly nothing for electricity. Last year we paid $105 for electricity for the entire year, and that includes using our air conditioner all summer long. We work at home and leave it on all day. The system will pay for itself in another couple of years, and then it’s free electricity for the life of the system, which is warranted for 20 years. In 2018 we bought a Camry hybrid, and the car gets as much as 50mpg on road trips, which is more than double the mpg of our previous car. I’m on a trip right now. We gassed up in Dublin, CA, where it costs less than $50 to completely fill the tank from empty. And we drove all the way to San Diego without filling up again, and have gas to spare. That’s about 500 miles. We will fill the tank again before heading home, but it won’t need a full fill up. So the whole trip will be less than $100. To me, that’s pretty affordable.
Anyway, those are just a few examples. Climate change is definitely real, definitely caused by human activity that creates greenhouse gasses, definitely already having noticeable effects, and will definitely get worse for years to come. And to me it’s worthwhile to invest in keeping it from becoming worse than it needs to. And some of those investments end up saving money or having other benefits that are worthwhile in themselves.