Climate In-Action: The World Can’t Wait
My friend lives in the Philippines. Rodne and I met 15 months ago when we participated in a Climate Reality Leadership Training with former VP Al Gore.
We were 1000 volunteers from all across the globe. Enthusiastic, bright-eyed, peaceful warriors, we accepted our mission to spread truth about the reality of climate change and cost of carbon that we all pay from continuing the use of fossil fuels.
On November 8th, Typhoon Haiyan struck Rodne’s country. Meteorologists said it was the most powerful storm to hit land anywhere in the world, ever.
I was relieved to learn Rodne was safe, but many of the people he has worked with, as well as his cousin, have yet to be accounted for.
“Why are we the ones paying for the cost of carbon?” Rodne blogged. “Typhoon Haiyan speaks of climate inaction, injustice, apathy and irresponsibility. Enough with all this suffering, enough with this madness.”
And although Filipinos appreciate our aid and sympathy, what they need is our commitment to change. After the last relief aid is delivered, industrialized nations always return to business as usual, emitting more and more carbon. What the people suffering most from the effects of climate change really want is for us to forge a path toward to a renewable energy future.
Mother Nature does not negotiate. Nature works within the laws of physics and chemistry. It’s time for us to recognize this and begin to build a civilization that works within those laws too.
Pricing Carbon
We can and we must put a price on carbon, now. Citizens Climate Lobby is working to create this political will.
A fee and dividend program would create a fee on fossil fuels-coal, oil, and natural gas- at the point of production or import. The funds collected would then be returned to citizens. The fee would climb on a regular schedule until we were on target to reach necessary emissions reductions.
It is expected that dirty fuel producers would pass on their increased costs to consumers. This would motivate people to use less carbon-heavy sources of energy so they could keep more of their dividend.
This policy is supported by economists on both side of the political spectrum. More than 30 countries already have successful carbon taxation programs.
The problem is only too daunting, on too large a scale, if we feel disconnected and powerless. It’s time to let that old way of thinking go.
Philippines Chief Climate Negotiator, Yeb Sano asked his fellow negotiators, “If not us then, who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?”
Join us, for your children, and your grandchildren. The Philippines can’t wait and neither can the world.
Citizens Climate Lobby www.citizensclimatelobby.org
Climate Reality Project www.climaterealityproject.org
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