The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
reported atmospheric CO2 levels reached 395 parts per million (PPM) this
year. That’s 115 PPM higher than any
time in at least 800,000 years, and it’s shocking!
CO2 thickens the
atmosphere trapping heat and moisture.
The more moisture trapped the worse droughts and storms become. Humans pump 90 million tons of CO2 up there
every 24 hours by burning fossil fuels.
Peer-reviewed science proving climate change is overwhelming.
The supposed disagreement among climate
scientists about the reality of climate change is a manufactured myth created
by fossil industry financed “think tanks” like the Heartland Institute and the
Heritage Foundation and repeated by their brainwashed paranoid conspiratorial
followers.
If “seeing is believing” losing 75% of the arctic sea ice last
year should be enough to convince anyone that global warming is real. Since
most people never see the arctic, shouldn’t witnessing terrible heat waves, droughts,
wildfires, dust storms, and tornadoes; seeing super storms like Katrina and
Sandy; seeing weird snowstorms and unusually strong consistent winds convince
us?
Solar, wind, and geothermal are clean energy sources poised
to replace fossil fuels. Right now, the playing field is stacked against clean
energy. The US fossil industry in 2012 was subsidized to the tune of $4 Billion
by taxpayers. They also are the most profitable industry on the planet which
gives them unprecedented political influence and a mighty sledge hammer to
stall clean energy development.
Amusingly, the paranoid conspirators that deny global
warming are the first to accuse environmentalists of being socialist commies. Well,
what’s more socialist than American tax payers subsidizing the fossil industry
while they fleece our wallets? Perhaps Exxon should be renamed The People’s Oil
Company of America!
What do we do about it? The most efficient way to stop
addiction to fossil fuels is to impose a carbon tax on them. Carbon tax legislation has been proposed a few
times in congress resulting with the expected kneejerk reaction from the fossil
industry, their paranoid harlequins, and fossil financed legislators.
The fossil financed government would have you believe that a
carbon tax will ruin our economy, yet Alaska has had a carbon tax, or “dividend”,
since 1982. This dividend is paid to Alaska’s citizens for the oil extracted
from their state. Alaskan residents living there for at least one calendar year
are eligible to receive the dividend. The lowest dividend paid out was $331.29
in 1984 and the highest was $2,069 in 2008.
A big concern is how a carbon tax would be managed. Dr.
James Hansen, former Director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASSA proposes
a fee on carbon at its source - a coal mine or an oil or gas well head. But
unlike other proposals he wants the dividend to, “go directly to US citizens as
a rebate on their tax bills; not one dime to make the government bigger.” That’s
not much different than what has been going on in Alaska for 31 years. This
dividend will offset the initial higher energy costs as the industry shifts
from dirty carbon to clean energy.
Hanson’s proposal is better than proposals that direct the
dividend into government coffers where the public will probably never get it. An
example is the Land &Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) that is also predicated
on oil extraction. President Eisenhower initiated it in 1964. A miniscule
percentage of off-shore oil drilling revenues amounting to around $900 million a
year was to be set aside each year to fund conservation projects in all 50
states. Well, LWCF was never declared a
“dedicated” fund so congress rarely fully funds it. Instead they pilfer it every
year to balance the general budget or to finance pork projects. Even Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD)
isn’t safe from government pilfering. Alaska’s government is trying to pass
bills to take that money to help balance their general budget.
We need a carbon tax to level the playing field between the
fossil industry and the clean energy industry. The only proposed plan that will
work is a fee/dividend plan. Anything that allows our inept government to get
their greedy fingers on the dividend money will never help humanity survive the
climate crisis.
