International Day of Action

I'm excited about Saturday, October 24th. That is the International Day of Climate Action being promoted by the folks at 350.org. As I write, there are nearly 2,500 actions planned in over 150 countries to help build international awareness and momentum around the scientific consensus that the CO2 our atmosphere should not exceed 350 parts per million (ppm).

On October 24th, I will be joining a group of human powered boats on the Willamette River to write the numbers 350 with our boats. What a fun and creative action this will be. If you visit the 350.org site, you can join an existing action or create your own. The point is to be engaged and involved because none of us can do this alone.

This is really a wonderful opportunity to re orientate our world with a sustainable economic system. The Chinese symbol for crisis is a combination of Danger + Opportunity. Both are present and I'd like to see us seize the opportunity and avoid the danger.

The current CO2 concentration is 387 ppm and climbing by 2 ppm per year. Scientists tell us that we must reverse this trend, reducing our global emissions to bring CO2 levels below 350 ppm.

While this poses challenges, I am proud that Portland has decreased per capita emissions 17 percent below 1990 levels, while the rest of the country has increase CO2 emissions by nearly 20 percent in the same time frame. We've done this through a variety of measures including land use planning, zoning, tree planting, hybrid autos, improved public transportation, multi-model transportation support, and more.

What are you doing on October 24th? I hope you'll join me in changing the world.

I'm opposed to the Cap-and-Trade system

I believe we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and we need to do it quickly.  I also believe a market solution is the best solution. While I laud the goals of carbon reduction, I believe a Cap-and-Trade (CAT) system is an unnecessarily complicated scheme only Wall Street could love (and politicians afraid of the word “tax” and US citizens to dumb to understand CAT is a tax.) 

CAT is essentially a carbon tax wrapped into a security.  Do we really trust Wall Street and the financial speculators to responsibly handle a trillion dollar market created to equitably solve a social problem?  I don’t.

Instead, I support a simpler, more transparent, and easier to understand, straight-forward Carbon Tax with 100% dividend distribution to U.S. citizens.  With a 100% dividend distribution, this tax would be revenue neutral for the government since all proceeds would be returned to the people in the form of a rebate.

The tax would be collected as the fuels enter the US market and that would be it.  The additional cost would flow through the system and affect all CO2 emitters.  This would internalize the price of polluting, making it more expensive to emit CO2. 

Since all monies collected would be refunded, those that pollute less than average would actually get a net rebate while those who pollute more than average would be the ones ultimately paying more.

The tax code is regularly and successfully used to promote or discourage certain behaviors.   I believe a simple, revenue neutral Carbon Tax is the way to reduce carbon quickly and fairly.

A Carbon Tax is supported by both Al Gore and NASA scientist and climate expert Jim Hansen.