I would like to celebrate the 40 young members of Sunrise Movement Asheville who had the courage to exercise civil disobedience on Dec. 6 by occupying Asheville City Hall [“Sunrise Movement Occupies City Hall Over Climate Emergency,” Dec. 11, Xpress]. We’re in a situation where climate change has been well understood and documented for more than 30 years. Today’s youths, who are projected to suffer the worst effects of the climate change crisis, look around and see literally every level of government that represents them ignore their pleas.
As an older millennial who now has my own toddler’s future to think about, this sense of frustration is familiar to me. This motivation has driven me to volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, pressing Congress for action on climate change. I believe we need a federal carbon fee and dividend as a first step toward climate change action. Canada has already implemented a national policy like this. Almost all economists believe that a CF&D solution is not only the fastest way to shift our economy away from carbon, but the dividend component delivers the greatest benefit to lower-income families, and so it’s a progressive policy.
In addition to paying our teachers more, expanding Medicaid and fixing our occupancy tax, my frustration in seeing a lack of action on climate change is also one of the reasons why I’m running to be our next state senator. In North Carolina, we urgently need to force Duke Energy to sprint to zero-carbon energy production. The U.N. Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C [of 2018] provides a clear mandate: We’re in a state of emergency, and radical action is required by all.
Thank you to the bold members of Sunrise Movement Asheville! I’m hopeful that if and when Green New Deal legislation is drafted, it will recognize carbon fee and dividend as one of the most effective ways to deal with climate change.
— Travis Smith
Candidate for N.C. Senate District 49
Asheville
What is your plan for when you stop the climate from changing?
Oh, and with NC being smarter than the other states, NC cannot afford to add $6 BILLION in medicaid expansion forever…NO.
We plan to party for the next 50,000 years. See para. 4 of this post: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2017/07/the-climate-has-always-changed-what-do-you-conclude/. Does that answer your question? If not, try rephrasing it in the form of a statement with the words “is that right?” tacked onto the end.
It’s most likely that this is all a simulation anyway. None of this matters. It’s all a big hoax, “climate change” is just a really dumb hoax. It doesn’t entertain me.
My hoax of choice today was scoring sweet tickets to Alison Krauss in June in Greenville, SC through the local presale. I find it much more entertaining than the climate hoax.
Have a nice simulation Peter!
Enjoy my simulation? I’ll go you one better. Here’s a paleoclimate simulation we can all enjoy: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2019/04/first-successful-model-simulation-of-the-past-3-million-years-of-climate-change/.
Be sure to read the postscript. It appears to have been written just for you.
Encouraging “civil disobedience “ by minors; one could think this seems a bit like child abuse. Could there be consequences?
In the age of little privacy and prospective employers / colleges browsing the social media trails / run-ins with law of it’s applicants, the adults providing direction to those that are minors may want to consider the consequences of their actions.
Typically, civil disobedience has consequences unless of course you have great connections. For those without great connections; well you know……