Time for a carbon tax?

At the Rappaport Institute's recent Green Cities event in Boston ( http://www.hks.harvard.edu/rappaport/events/greencities.htm ), the presenters were notable not only for their comprehensive approach to "greening" our cities and urban areas, but also for their advocacy of a carbon tax - in contrast to the more traditional 'cap and trade' approach to carbon emissions - to help mitigate global warming.

The carbon tax rationale is that putting a dollar cost on consumers' CO2 emissions is the most effective way to curb fossil fuel consumption (and reduce global warming emissions). And it's pretty simple: if you choose to purchase an energy-inefficient and/or highly polluting vehicle, for example, then you pay for your choice. It's essentially a version of consumption tax, where you pay for your choices as a consumer - it's your prerogative to make high-emitting choices that will cost you more, or lower-emitting and cost-effective choices. For Americans who tend to balk at any mention of a tax increase, that's a key factor, because the choice to increase your tax burden is entirely yours. In addition, most carbon tax plans include tax credits for consumers who choose lower-emissions-producing goods. And as tax time approaches, that sounds like welcome news to all of us.


For an explanation and discussion of the merits of carbon taxing vs. cap-and-trade, visit http://www.carbontax.org/

Getting fired up about renewable energy

Last week I had the good fortune of hearing Bracken Hendricks, co-author of Apollo's Fire, read from his book and talk about the promise of clean energy as a solution to global warming - and to revving up our sagging U.S. economy. At a time when much of the discussion about global warming and climate change involves hand-wringing and doom-and-gloom, Hendricks' message that developing renewable energy solutions will not only help mitigate global warming, but also provide an enormous boost to creating new U.S. jobs and industry, is incredibly refreshing.

The title of Hendricks' (and co-author Jay Inslee's) book draws on the inspiration of President J.F.K.'s Project Apollo effort to reach the moon. Hendricks asserts that we have the technology and the talent to achieve a 'new economy' around sustainable energy (and economic) development, and require only the desire and political will to act on our potential. And as Hendricks points out, we can't afford not to act, with the devastating effects of global warming already in evidence, and with a receding U.S. economy sorely in need of new jobs that can't easily be outsourced to the other side of the globe. As Hendricks frames the argument, a clean-tech, green-color-jobs economy is our most obvious path to an environmentally healthy and promising future.

You can learn more about Apollo's Fire and the authors at http://www.apollosfire.net/. Check it out, read the book and get inspired by the clean energy future.

And while you're at it, learn about the groups who helped sponsored Hendricks' reading at MIT. The Green Roundtable http://www.greenroundtable.org/, Ceres http://www.ceres.org/, Boston Climate Action Network http://massclimateaction.net/index.php?page=boston , the Environmental Leadership Program http://www.elpnet.org/index.php and the Union of Concerned Scientists http://www.ucsusa.org/ will get you excited about the future of clean energy!

Saving the rainforest at home

Saving the Amazon rainforest is a popular rallying cry for environmentalists, and a cause that's gained wide appeal thanks to the efforts of pop stars, politicians and environmental conservation organizations. In terms of preserving precious ecosystems and mitigating global warming, it's incredibly crucial to stop the devastation of rainforests that harbor untold numbers of species and absorb a significant portion of the world's carbon dioxide.

The missing cry in the fight to save the Amazon rainforest is the lack of recognition - at least among many environmental groups - that while U.S. citizens shake their finger at Brazil and neighboring countries for failing to enforce environmental restrictions and preserve their precious natural resources, we're guilty of the same widespread rainforest devastation in our own country.

In the temperate rainforests of California and the Pacific Northwest, logging companies have for decades raped the land with impunity, leading to massive soil erosion (and frequent landslides), rivers choked in silt and the loss of crucial habitat for endangered species. Clearcutting - the same technique used by soybean farmers in the Brazilian rainforest - continues on a massive scale in this country, without any restriction other than a prohibition of clearcutting on federal lands. Weyerhauser and other logging companies argue for clearcutting as a 'sound' forestry practice, which sounds suspiciously like the Brazilian corporate farmer's justification for leveling thousands of acres of pristine rainforest.

I've watched the devastation practiced in the rainforests of this country for far too long. It's high time we started practicing what we preach (to countries outside our borders) and protect our own precious rainforests. For information about clearcutting, visit http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/fcut.asp, as well as http://www.snowwowl.com/rltreesclearcutting.html for photos of the devastating results.