Beating climate change

I went to a meeting of the closest chapter of Citizen's Climate Lobby. They are a one purpose organization, with the goal of getting legislation passed to put a fee (not a tax) on carbon and then to rebate that fee to each citizen at the end of the year. Every year the size of the fee will increase, predictably.

I think it is a good goal, and they are the only people who seem to be doing anything in an organized manner. I felt pretty stupid when I went in and didn't know my legislative district. The brain power in the room was quite considerable- from the political people to the retired scientists. And yet...

The organization is neutral on so many things. Geoengineering. Nuclear power. One person didn't understand why this might hurt the economy when we would be putting back just as much money into the economy as we are taking out.

Because our economy is based upon cheap energy, and renewables do not scale up easily, and nuclear would have a long lag time to build more reactors. There is more to our economy than money.

They also didn't understand why this wouldn't be seen as income distribution by some people. People who use more energy- typically rich people- will pay more. But the dividend will be equal for everyone. Which can be explained by the fact that we all equally suffer from the increasing levels of C02, while those who contribute more to it should pay more. There is an economic principle about internalizing externalities. But you know some people- probably someone rich- will complain that this is income redistribution.

I think it is a good goal, and one of the more libertarian approaches to climate change. People and businesses get to decide how they will react to the increasing price of carbon based fuel. It will likely involve increased energy efficiencies, changes in lifestyle, shifting energy sources, and hopefully finding new energy sources.

I just don't think we have as much time as most Americans think that we do. Which makes me think of my mom- she thinks she has a lot more time than she does. Maybe that is human nature for most people. Maybe my history of depression makes me a bit of a Cassandra.

I think we are ultimately going to have to go to geoengineering of some sort. But we are not there yet.