Sample letter

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is trying to get a sweeping global warming package (H.R. 2454) out of committee this week. And there are a number of flaws, but the most glaring is the use of cap-and-trade. Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel at CarbonFees.org offer a far superior approach.

I cannot stress enough that cap-and-trade is the equivalent of a sub-prime "fix" to curbing greenhouse gas emissions. It is a deeply flawed market-based scheme. If you'd really like to understand this, please read this paper (PDF) from Laurie and Allan.

On their website, you can also find this sample letter:

Subject: Cap-and-Trade vs. Carbon-Fees-with-100%-Rebate

Dear Representative:

To date there has been a lot of publicity about the tragedies that can result if climate change is not addressed promptly by a rapid transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy. However, there has been a lot less debate and very little public education on the alternatives for getting our economy to make this transition. Specifically, there has been little news and little debate on the choice between Cap-and-Trade vs. Carbon-Fees-With-100%-Rebate.

While many politicians are advocating Cap-and-Trade, I am asking you to become educated about the alternative of Carbon-Fees-With-100% Rebate. Please visit www.carbonfees.org to learn more about the potential for this alternative market mechanism to create the incentives necessary to rapidly transition to a post-fossil fuel economy. In addition, I also ask that you obtain expert input from economists and scientists as well as educating the public about both the urgency of the problem and the factors to consider in making this important choice.
Thank you for your consideration.

And here is an important excerpt from Laurie and Allan's paper sited above:

Given the huge momentum that cap-and-trade has developed, it is critical for every concerned citizen who believes this decision deserves additional scrutiny to communicate with their elected representatives, friends, neighbors and colleagues. . . In addition, some surveys have indicated that many people are afraid of carbon taxes or fees, even with rebates. Our belief is that the issues of urgency, effectiveness, and relative cost to consumers of cap-and-trade v carbon fees with 100% rebate have not been effectively explained to the public. We encourage you to help your friends, families, neighbors and colleagues understand these issues as the most pressing ones we face, even at this time of economic crisis.

Conclusion
While the recent debate on how to rescue the economy has tended to overshadow the debate on climate change, as many people have noted, the economic crisis has provided an opportunity. It has made it clear that massive investments must be made to stimulate the economy. The question is how to make those decisions wisely. Carbon fees with 100% rebate has the advantages of costing the government very little, returning all proceeds equally to everyone to fund continued spending on energy, and creating huge incentives for climate-saving changes. The fact that little government spending would be needed to scale-up clean energy technology would leave more room for any stimulus package to focus on the other necessary measures, such as funding for green-jobs training and a new comprehensive system of efficient transmission lines.

So, because I sent the above sample letter a month ago, and to show my awareness of the Waxman-Markey bill (H.R. 2454), here is the letter I'm sending to my representative.

Dear Representative:

As the likelihood of catastrophic climate change increases with almost every new climate science study released, prompt rapid transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy is critical. One excellent part of the solution that has garnered very little public attention is Carbon-Fees-With-100%-Rebate. This approach has three very significant advantages: costing the government very little; returning all proceeds equally to everyone to fund continued spending on energy; and creating huge incentives for climate-saving changes.

While Congressmen Waxman and Markey (and many others) are advocating Cap-and-Trade, I am asking you once again to become educated about the alternative of Carbon-Fees-With-100% Rebate. Please visit www.carbonfees.org to learn more about the potential for this alternative market mechanism to create the incentives necessary to rapidly transition to a post-fossil fuel economy. Specifically, read their 17-page Cap-and-Trade vs. Carbon Fees discussion paper. In addition, I again ask that you obtain expert input from economists and scientists as well as educating the public about both the urgency of the problem and the factors to consider in making this critical choice. I hope you will then begin urging your fellow Congresspersons to support Carbon-Fees-With-100% Rebate.

Thank you for your consideration.

More Grim Predictions

This from Climate Ark:

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology forecast that global warming's effects this century could be twice as extreme as estimated just six years ago. They found that Earth's median surface temperature could rise 9.3 degrees F (5.2 degrees C) by 2100 compared to a 2003 study that projected a median temperature increase of 4.3 degrees F (2.4 degrees C). The new study, published in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate, said the difference was due to improved economic modeling and data. The paper calls for "rapid and massive action".

I'm searching for a metaphor to which people can relate. If space aliens were slowly filling our atmosphere with a poison, wouldn't the world "leaders" throw everything we have at them?

Or how about this one: If the US was involved in World War III, and the nation needed everyone to conserve all resources, stop unnecessary traveling, and focus on growing as much of their own food as possible, wouldn't you want to do that? To prevent the destruction of our country?

Still not quite right, and the reason is clear: those scenarios present threats from others. I think it is safe to say that most people don't see capitalism, the endless growth economy, and big corporations as "others." I think most folks generally feel all this is necessary to their way of life. That is why I've said before we need to redefine ourselves and our culture.

Maybe I'll return to the psychopathic murderer metaphor, but this time, the murderer is your best friend, someone you trust completely. So Western industrial civilization is your best friend, and he's got a gun, which is CO2 emissions, and he's running around shooting anyone he sees. Do you try to talk him out of it (and get shot in the process) or do you do whatever it takes to knock the gun out of his hands?

Hmmm, that still does not quite capture the situation. It portrays the urgency well enough, but it is maybe too immediate. And it requires a rather natural response. Plus, the threat is only to people, not everything else we need to survive. And, he's only one person. Not a great metaphor, really.

We have all become so enculturated that we don't know how to respond. We don't have a culture that demands genuine democracy with threats of revolution. But that is what we need. Of course we need a few thousand people writing letters and making movies and posting to blogs and raising awareness, but at some point VERY soon, we need to take it up a few zillion notches and start general work stoppages, start taking land away from corporate polluters by use of sheer numbers (let them send ten thousand policemen, we will have 500,000 squatters willing to risk all to save our home).

Too radical for you? Then maybe you could join in on the awareness-raising. Maybe only 3 million Americans could demand sane policies that would lead us toward the kind of paradigm shift we so desperately need. Maybe we need 10 million, who knows, but I'm back to my original phrase: we don't know until we try.

I hope to hear from more of you that you want to make action for climate justice a regular part of your life. It really is more urgent than we've been lead to believe. And there is still a sliver of a chance that it isn't too late.

But inaction will guarantee the death of most life on this planet.

Oh, and if you think of an appropriate metaphor, let me know please!

Boycott Palm Oil

I've known for some time that palm oil plantations were a significant cause of tropical deforestation, so I've been personally avoiding purchasing any product that mentions palm oil on the label (yes, even Newman's Organic chocolate goodies). But after reading an article about the murder of orangutans as a part of the clearing of forests to make room for these plantations, and then seeing these two articles today, I decided to make a public plea: please do not buy any product containing palm oil.

As the second article makes clear, palm oil is present in vast numbers of products and often labeled only as "vegetable oil," in the U.K. at least. I find it hard to believe that the US has stronger labeling laws of any sort than the EU, but the labels I read here usually list the possible suspects in parentheses, e.g. "vegetable oil (soy and/or cottonseed and/or palm)." But now I think it might be wise to just avoid all products that don't say what kind of vegetable oil.

I don't normally ask people to make lifestyle changes, but I can see no morally valid reason for not caring about the fate of our forests, the most diverse communities on the planet, and critical entities in preventing runaway global warming. For today, that is all I can say.

Suggested Actions

• First of all, here is a very fast and simple one. Go to this link about why subsidizing agrofuels is insane, read the letter and send it to President Obama. It is a great letter. [5/1/09: Sorry, that link has now expired, but signing up for action alerts from Climate Ark will ensure you get to see all the upcoming opportunities to voice your opinion.]


• At Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE), they have just gotten a network of Outreach Volunteers up and running. You can go to their website and sign up (the webpage includes a list of tools to help volunteers).

The basic idea for an Outreach Volunteer is to help CASSE spread the word about uneconomic growth and the steady state economy. The easiest way to do this is to collect signatures on their position on economic growth, which can be signed online here:
http://www.steadystate.org/CASSEPositionOnEG.html

CASSE will be having a conference call on May 6th at noon Eastern, 9 AM Pacific. If you sign up as a volunteer, you'll get more information about that as the date approaches.


• GlobalWarmingSolution.org is the only group I’ve found with a comprehensive, detailed action plan that could work here in the USA and be a model for other countries as well. The plan, wisely named Rosie Revisited, is not as radical as my list of solutions, but is still something I endorse because it is smart and will get the job done. They have a DVD about Rosie Revisited, which is to be released nationally very soon. Once I have seen the video, if I feel it is worthy of spreading around (and I suspect I will), I intend to organize as many showings of it as I can, making each one a fundraiser for GlobalWarmingSolution.org. If you’d like to read Rosie Revisited, it is available in PDF from their website. It is about 50 pages in length.


• With the recent EPA ruling that greenhouse gas emissions are a health threat (finally!), it seems that the Climate Law Institute of the Center for Biological Diversity is well-positioned to make some real strides in using existing laws to curb emissions, They’ve already been successful in forcing ships to comply to emissions rules. The Center for Biological Diversity is one of my favorite groups, as they have a good track record of protecting threatened animals and natural communities, and their alerts make regular letter-writing actions easy.


• Aside from the four mentioned above, I’ve chosen a few other organizations with which to collaborate. I’ve asked to be a local contact for Rising Tide North America (and will talk to the nearest contact soon), which has a link on their page that makes it easy to sign on to the Durban Declaration on Carbon Trading, which is another easy action to take. I have recently learned of Carbon Fees.org, whose site makes it easy to send a letter to your representative encouraging a carbon fee instead of cap and trade.

And I have only heard back from one of the forest protection groups I’ve contacted (FERN), so I will share that and the other forest info (when I get it) in another post.


Any of the actions I’ve mentioned above that I have done or plan to do can be done by anyone, so don’t hesitate, jump on board and help out. And please share what you’ve done if you are inclined. Thanks!

Better Educated, Revisions Underway

Now that I'm refocusing on this blog and other global warming work, I can report on some of my recent findings. If you've been a loyal reader and read the post about my proposed solutions and their accompanying individual posts, you may want to re-read some of those if this quick summary isn't clear. I am no longer endorsing the REDD program as it is currently used, but could if it were changed to ensure the decisions are made by the forest inhabitants. Here is another, more brief, article explaining some dangers of REDD.

As for biochar, the same caution applies. Done correctly, using only waste products from the local region, it has potential to play a small role. So we ought to employ it. Every little bit helps. But the big boys want to grow mega-plantations of fast-growing, maybe even genetically modified, trees. We need more trees, yes, but we need diverse forests that reach maturity, not ones intended to be clear-cut.

And when it comes to 4th generation nuclear, ugh. If people aren't willing to change, or rather, if there never is enough daring leadership to encourage them to change, so that the only choice is between wind turbines off every coast and along all windy ridges with road access or an occasional 4th gen nuke plant (like five in the whole country), well, I'd have to further educate myself, but for now I think the risk of a few nuke plants (again, ONLY if they were 4th gen) would get my vote. "Even in you own backyard?" I can hear you (and my own mind) asking. What horrible choices! That is why I'm for conservation and low-tech and shrinking economy and negative population growth first.

Which brings up a point. All this research and thinking has made it very clear to me what I believe we ought to be asking for. And just the other day, Dr. Glen Barry, of the Ecological Internet summed it up very well when responding to the announcement that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ruling that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases "may endanger public health or welfare," a finding that opens the door to future regulation of such emissions under the Clean Air Act:

"We are thrilled to see President Obama dismiss President Bush's years of criminal climate science obstruction, and to rejoin the world of civilized nations making public policy based upon ecological science, and needs of Earth and her humanity. We encourage the President to follow through with rigorous efforts to immediately begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including phasing out the use of coal and tar sands, ending old forest logging, committing further to energy efficiency and renewables, and resisting the siren song of industrial agrofuels."

I'm convinced that we need daily large numbers of people telling their elected officials that unless they endorse the rapid phasing-out of coal mining and tar sand extraction and logging of mature forests, we will work very hard to organize for a candidate who will.

I highly recommend reading "Hoodwinked in the Hothouse," PDF here, which summarizes many of the false "solutions" and why they are so dangerous. We must tell Obama over and over and over that cap and trade is unacceptable, that we'd rather reduce per captia consumption to European levels (about 50% of ours), that subsidizing agrofuels is a horrible use of taxpayer money, and that we want a return to vibrant local economies.

I have contacted 7 or 8 of my top groups and asked about volunteer opportunities. When I have responses, I will post them.

I am also working on drafts of a couple different letters, which I will also share when I have them complete.

So I hope to be posting again in a week or less.