Reasons for Hope
Two months ago I wrote an article for a small paper called “Living in a Fish Bowl”. I have since found new reasons for hope for our global problem of Climate Change. I discovered an organization called Citizens Climate Lobby who has answers that can truly address our situation. They are an international non-partisan grassroots organization that is “committed to creating the political will for a livable world”. Their reach is vast and covers every state in the US with 6 chapters internationally.
This is the best-organized and most successful organization I have found that truly has a plan and the commitment of over 40,000 volunteers and 20 employed members. They lobby congress and have liaisons to many of our representatives in Congress. They build relationships on a non-partisan basis. Their main goal is to enact legislation for a carbon fee and dividend to address global warming.
These are the main points of their legislation and I have taken this directly from their own website: citizensclimatelobby.org
“A fee is placed on fossil fuels at the source (well, mine, port of entry). This fee starts at $15 per ton of CO2 equivalent emissions, and increases steadily each year by $10.
100% of the net fees are returned to American households on an equal basis. Under this plan about 2/3 of all households would break even or receive more in their dividend checks than they would pay in higher prices due to the fee, thereby protecting the middle class and lower-income households [2].
A border tariff adjustment is placed on goods imported from, or exported to, countries without an equivalent price on carbon. This adjustment would both discourage businesses from relocating to where they can emit more CO2 and encourage other nations to adopt an equivalent price on carbon.
A predictably increasing carbon price will send a clear market signal which will unleash entrepreneurs and investors in the new clean-energy economy.”
This organization has really done its homework by studying carbon taxes and fees endorsed in other countries and those countries have seen a reduction in carbon emissions and an increase in renewables.
On March 18 an editorial in the New York Times called “Shed a Tear for the Reefs” reported on the severe death of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia just last year and it happened nearly 30 years before it was expected. One of the Great Natural Wonders of the World is deeply threatened.
Some of you may not share my deep love of the natural world. When I realize the impending demise of Orangutans just so the very powerful can grow palm oil for sale, or the demise of our coral reefs, which provide 25% of the world’s fish, I find myself heading towards despair. I have decided that I need to take my despair and turn it into action and I am now helping to develop a chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby in Colorado Springs. I hope to also continue to do this for the Woodland Park and Florissant areas.
Even if you don’t care about the fact that we are seeing the greatest extinction of all times, I’m sure you care about you and your children having food and water. With the immense increase in floods and droughts worldwide, the national security issue is impending and we may find our grocery store shelves empty of many of the products we expect. When people are starving they have to move and with rising seas we will see less livable land and more people needing to live on this land. 40% of our world’s population lives on the coasts and they are seeing their homes disappear.
I so hope some of you will investigate my facts, learn about what we can do to address these issues and join me in becoming active for our beautiful planet and for the survival of humankind. Our planet will survive without us but we cannot survive without a livable planet.
