Thirty years ago, then NASA scientist, Dr. James E. Hansen, warned Congress that the greenhouse effect was warming the planet. Despite that year, 1988, being the warmest to date, divided Congress was unable, and has continued to be unable, to come together to address this issue, the most serious threat to our civilization. (World wide, not a few of the factors – heat, drought, flooding, ocean rise – that have propelled people to immigrate to other environments and lands are climate-related.)
In 2007 other scientists and concerned citizens formed the Citizens’ Climate Lobby in another attempt to address this issue. Their primary approach has been a fee and dividend (with proceeds returned to citizens,) levied on carbon emissions. The idea was that a rising cost attached to carbon emissions would, through variable, market-based incentives, encourage producers and users of carbon to reduce their production and usage. Estimates projected that a family of four would receive two thousand dollars in the first year to offset their rising fuel costs.
Now, with any number of repercussions from our man-made global warming becoming increasingly evident, another group, Americans for Carbon Dividends, has launched a campaign to legislate nationally a fee and dividend program. What’s new about this group is the wide, bi-partisan support it has generated. Lead by former Republican Senator Trent Lott and former Democratic Senator John Breaux, and supported by former Republican secretaries of state James Baker and George Shultz, it has also found encouragement from Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke, former Fed chairmen.
And perhaps even more unprecedented has been Exxon Mobil’s support. In fact, several recent polls now reveal that a majority of Americans want the government to take action.
Of course, there are powerful, conservative politicians and supporters, such as the Koch Brothers, who push for the denial of climate change. But the evidence from the last several years, in our town, and globally from numerous scientific studies refutes those capricious, self-serving assertions.
But the Americans for Carbon Dividends does not under-estimate the challenge of getting fee and dividend legislation enacted. And for that reason, they will soon launch a campaign to build public support, while they hope that the upcoming Congressional elections will vote in new representatives more cognizant of science, our changing environments, and the increasingly urgent need to act.