[Last] week, several folks from Asheville joined hundreds of others to go to Washington, D.C., and brave the sweltering heat — not for vacation, but to talk to our senators and representatives about a bipartisan solution to halt disastrous climate change.
The carbon fee and dividend [policy proposal] has significant support from both sides of the aisle. It would charge a fee on any fossil fuel at the point of production or import. The money collected would be returned to all citizens as a monthly dividend check.
The result? Possibly our best hope for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. And it’s also good for the economy!
Please learn more at www.citizensclimatelobby.org.
— Cathy Holt Asheville
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5 thoughts on “Letter writer: Asheville residents lobby for climate change proposal”
This way citizens would RECEIVE the carbon
fees as a monthly check. That would cancel out the inevitable price spikes in dirty energy. Polluter pay the fees, so it holds fossil fuel corporations personally responsible for the damages they cause, hundreds of billions of dollars per year. (Harvard School of Medicine and others)
With this policy, the fee payments to citizens would be
there for purchasing low carbon alternatives, which are growing rapidly. That would lower emissions, as it has in BC Canada with a similar policy. They also lowered taxes with their fees.
To those who reject the science: perhaps nothing will change
your mind. But what have you got against cleaner air, less asthma in our kids and more money in your pockets?
To those accepting the science: Any effort and expense to
limit the problem of climate change is worth it. For example:
A cost-benefit analysis has demonstrated that the cost of
sea level rise ALONE is so great that no expense to prevent it is unwarranted.
Why even bother with the paid deniers who thrive on the
delay of a false debate? IMO we must take action and the way forward is to
support those in government who will act.
Jim
LOL, LOL, LOL. Out of touch people like yourself who assume punishing Americans while shipping coal to Africa, ignoring the environmental disaster that is China and India, and expect “socialism” to make up for the impact that will inevitably be the norm is why the US is in decline. 20 trillion in debt and instead of not comprehending that years of bad policy including over regulation on industry and illegals entering the workforce is killing the nation, you somehow assume that a dividend check will make up for it. And force consumers to seek alternative energy. I hear the VA also rejects vets and allows them to die on waiting list too. And you believe the government is the entity to turn to? LOL, the US government is corrupt and will not benefit you, but the crony corporations that will reap the REAL DIVIDENDS while you can afford to believe in insanity and feel good BS and the rest suffer under poverty.
Go lobby China and India who are the biggest polluters in the world.
Here are the main points of the reply to Eptstein (who btw mischaracterises much of the science)
1. McKibben does not deny that fossil fuels (ff) are a boon: We should be grateful for the benefits of ff. and grateful for the ability to move to better sources.
This is the key point: It is not necessary to return to the stone age when ff are phased out. Duh.
2. ff risks to the ocean: 30% more acidic. Shellfish are already impacted. “Hot sour and dead ” is the ocean’s prognosis at business as usual emissions. How much progress is that?
3. record low for Arctic sea ice. Grave danger, albedo speeds warning. Loss of sea ice=extremes in weather
4. Hydrology: warm oceans cause a 5% wetter atmosphere. 20% more heavy rainfall. Example? 20 million dislocated in recent floods in Pak, to Manila.
5. AGW tripled floods since 1980 according the world’s largest insurance co, Munich RE
6. Killer for agriculture. Grain yields have fallen 20-30%. Droughts floods are increasing.
7. Record heat waves have caused price increases up by 40%
8. AGW risk to 70% of species. Already observed killing species at a faster rate
9. Storm surge and sea level rise will be 3x higher by 2100. Rates are accelerating on eastern seaboard. (BTW sea level rise in U.S. estimated at $5 trillion in damages unless adaptation brings it down to $1 T; and adaptation itself is expensive.)
10. Risks for forests; 7x more land burns now in U.S. and fire season occurs many weeks earlier.
11. Public health: worldwide DARA estimates 400,000 deaths due to AGW. 5M die from ff pollution. By 2030 it will be our biggest humanitarian challenge.
12. GW is wiping out 1.6% of GDP, in decades 3.2 to 11% of GDP. UK’s top economist Stern predicts 20% loss in GDP. Other estimaates,. each 1 deg – 1.3% drop in GDP
13. Pentagon reports: greater conflict from AGW. and it feeds terrorism
14. Loss of freedom: responses to AGW will require more federal control, more FEMA. Called ‘a libertarian nightmare’
15. FF controls our democracy; Kochs buy elections. $500 billion world wide subsidies for ff
In Summary:
a. Yes, ff energy has enormous benefits. MAIN POINT: FF have enormous liabilities (up to and including the 6th extinction)
b. We have the tools to adapt to a new energy economy with all the benefits and far fewer liabilities
Carbon fee and dividend must get us to the new energy economy before we unravel our civilization.
Carbon fee and dividend makes enormous sense!
This way citizens would RECEIVE the carbon
fees as a monthly check. That would cancel out the inevitable price spikes in dirty energy. Polluter pay the fees, so it holds fossil fuel corporations personally responsible for the damages they cause, hundreds of billions of dollars per year. (Harvard School of Medicine and others)
With this policy, the fee payments to citizens would be
there for purchasing low carbon alternatives, which are growing rapidly. That would lower emissions, as it has in BC Canada with a similar policy. They also lowered taxes with their fees.
To those who reject the science: perhaps nothing will change
your mind. But what have you got against cleaner air, less asthma in our kids and more money in your pockets?
To those accepting the science: Any effort and expense to
limit the problem of climate change is worth it. For example:
A cost-benefit analysis has demonstrated that the cost of
sea level rise ALONE is so great that no expense to prevent it is unwarranted.
Why even bother with the paid deniers who thrive on the
delay of a false debate? IMO we must take action and the way forward is to
support those in government who will act.
LOL, LOL, LOL. Out of touch people like yourself who assume punishing Americans while shipping coal to Africa, ignoring the environmental disaster that is China and India, and expect “socialism” to make up for the impact that will inevitably be the norm is why the US is in decline. 20 trillion in debt and instead of not comprehending that years of bad policy including over regulation on industry and illegals entering the workforce is killing the nation, you somehow assume that a dividend check will make up for it. And force consumers to seek alternative energy. I hear the VA also rejects vets and allows them to die on waiting list too. And you believe the government is the entity to turn to? LOL, the US government is corrupt and will not benefit you, but the crony corporations that will reap the REAL DIVIDENDS while you can afford to believe in insanity and feel good BS and the rest suffer under poverty.
Go lobby China and India who are the biggest polluters in the world.
“our best hope for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions”
We don’t NEED to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9tJ5WxyGo0
Your link to a talk by Epstein about the virtues of coal, etc. should be followed by a debate between him and McKibben
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_a9RP0J7PA
Here are the main points of the reply to Eptstein (who btw mischaracterises much of the science)
1. McKibben does not deny that fossil fuels (ff) are a boon: We should be grateful for the benefits of ff. and grateful for the ability to move to better sources.
This is the key point: It is not necessary to return to the stone age when ff are phased out. Duh.
2. ff risks to the ocean: 30% more acidic. Shellfish are already impacted. “Hot sour and dead ” is the ocean’s prognosis at business as usual emissions. How much progress is that?
3. record low for Arctic sea ice. Grave danger, albedo speeds warning. Loss of sea ice=extremes in weather
4. Hydrology: warm oceans cause a 5% wetter atmosphere. 20% more heavy rainfall. Example? 20 million dislocated in recent floods in Pak, to Manila.
5. AGW tripled floods since 1980 according the world’s largest insurance co, Munich RE
6. Killer for agriculture. Grain yields have fallen 20-30%. Droughts floods are increasing.
7. Record heat waves have caused price increases up by 40%
8. AGW risk to 70% of species. Already observed killing species at a faster rate
9. Storm surge and sea level rise will be 3x higher by 2100. Rates are accelerating on eastern seaboard. (BTW sea level rise in U.S. estimated at $5 trillion in damages unless adaptation brings it down to $1 T; and adaptation itself is expensive.)
10. Risks for forests; 7x more land burns now in U.S. and fire season occurs many weeks earlier.
11. Public health: worldwide DARA estimates 400,000 deaths due to AGW. 5M die from ff pollution. By 2030 it will be our biggest humanitarian challenge.
12. GW is wiping out 1.6% of GDP, in decades 3.2 to 11% of GDP. UK’s top economist Stern predicts 20% loss in GDP. Other estimaates,. each 1 deg – 1.3% drop in GDP
13. Pentagon reports: greater conflict from AGW. and it feeds terrorism
14. Loss of freedom: responses to AGW will require more federal control, more FEMA. Called ‘a libertarian nightmare’
15. FF controls our democracy; Kochs buy elections. $500 billion world wide subsidies for ff
In Summary:
a. Yes, ff energy has enormous benefits. MAIN POINT: FF have enormous liabilities (up to and including the 6th extinction)
b. We have the tools to adapt to a new energy economy with all the benefits and far fewer liabilities
Carbon fee and dividend must get us to the new energy economy before we unravel our civilization.
“Your link to a talk by Epstein about the virtues of coal, etc. should be followed by a debate between him and McKibben”
Wherein which Epstein won.
http://industrialprogress.com/debate/