Stick your head out the window; do you see the Arctic ice melting?
Having just witnessed climate change in action on an Arctic campaign, Greenpeace International head Kumi Naidoo professed, "I am shit scared." Despite the fact that the Arctic seems far away, Naidoo said, "What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic."
"Because of [the fossil fuel industry's] wealth and political power, they've been able to remain the only industry on Earth that doesn't have to clean up after themselves. There's no price on carbon," McKibben later told HuffPost.
His proposal to increase the cost of carbon emissions -- one also advocated by Hansen -- would involve collecting a fee on all oil, gas and coal resources at the point of domestic extraction or their port of entry. A dividend would then be equally split among all legal residents, with none of the funds going to the government. McKibben and others argue that this market-based approach would promote innovation and awareness without increasing the size of government.
According to McKibben, the carbon fee must be high enough to keep 80 percent of known fossil fuel reserves in the ground.
Assessing the melting Arctic ice and other recent climate observations, McKibben noted, "The final irony is we're at the first moment in human history where we're able to see what's going on ... the question is whether we're going to do anything about it."
"It's hard for the public to realize, because they stick their head out the window and don't see much going on."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09
"Because of [the fossil fuel industry's] wealth and political power, they've been able to remain the only industry on Earth that doesn't have to clean up after themselves. There's no price on carbon," McKibben later told HuffPost.
His proposal to increase the cost of carbon emissions -- one also advocated by Hansen -- would involve collecting a fee on all oil, gas and coal resources at the point of domestic extraction or their port of entry. A dividend would then be equally split among all legal residents, with none of the funds going to the government. McKibben and others argue that this market-based approach would promote innovation and awareness without increasing the size of government.
According to McKibben, the carbon fee must be high enough to keep 80 percent of known fossil fuel reserves in the ground.
Assessing the melting Arctic ice and other recent climate observations, McKibben noted, "The final irony is we're at the first moment in human history where we're able to see what's going on ... the question is whether we're going to do anything about it."
"It's hard for the public to realize, because they stick their head out the window and don't see much going on."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09
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