Lloyd Jacobson, HOUmanitarian
So the elections have been decided, and there is no University of Texas versus Texas A&M game this year. How do you occupy your idle conversation time with your cantankerous relatives over the Thanksgiving holiday? Well the folks at GOOD Magazine are suggesting its high time for a family discussion on climate change.
For Houston, a town built largely around oil and petro-chemical companies, this might be a dangerous endeavor. But the facts on the ground seem suggest it is time to consider far more than talk:
• The drought we experienced in Texas last year has expanded across much of the nation;
• Hurricanes have impacted parts of the nation unaccustomed to them, and;
• Droughts and hardships have been increasingly seen world-wide.
All are evidence of a changing planet that is having its weather patterns altered as a result of a general increase in temperatures and carbon in the atmosphere.
And whether they are monitoring the temperature gauge, or just seeing the economic writing on the wall, several of our largest corporate citizens in the energy industry are starting to chime in on ways to address the problem from the economic perspective. Just this week Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon-Mobil have both shown signals on ways they might like to move forward.
Shell joined a coalition of 100 multi-national businesses in a communique released just before the next UN meeting in Doha on Climate Change to suggest the need for multilateral pricing system on carbon that is unambiguous.
“…The private sector invests trillions of dollars into energy and other infrastructure projects, but, in most cases the goal of reducing [greenhouse gas] emissions does not guide such spending. A more effective approach is required, one that provides the right incentives to shift this private investment and makes best use of the limited pool of public funds..”
– Carbon Price Communique (Prince of Wales Corporate Leader Group)
And this week Exxon-Mobil, in a slightly different approach, has indicated a specific policy willingness to support a Carbon Tax. The largest of the oil giants, which in 2009 famously opposed a Congressional bill that would have created a cap and trade system for carbon credits, has indicated that a carbon tax would be easier to implement and be more predictable. As Kimberly Basington, an Exxon spokesperson told Bloomberg News:
“Combined with further advances in energy efficiency and new technologies spurred by market innovation, a well-designed carbon tax could play a significant role in addressing the challenge of rising emissions,”
– Carbon Fee From Obama Seen Viable With Backing From Exxon (Bloomberg News)
Where we go from here is still uncertain. But no doubt the debate will revolve around an extensive mix of domestic concerns for new green energy advances and incentives, combined with conservation and moves toward transition fuels like natural gas. And no doubt any discussion that involves the arena of taxes, will also enter a realm of debate that has far less to do with energy or climate – unless we consider the activities and internal temperatures of chronic anti-tax advocates into the mix.
But beyond our own borders and personal pocketbook concerns, around the world the very real impacts are already causing alarms that are hard to ignore. Just this week the World Bank released a study of climate impacts upon the planet that not only draws out possible scenarios, but also puts real world costs on the world’s poorest nations who are less able to adapt to a changing climate.
And even US military and national security strategists are trying to sound the alarm on these issues, as they see prospects for future political destabilization and crisis throughout the world creating conflicts over resources like access to water, food, crop-lands, energy supply chains and public health systems. John D Steinbruner, lead author of a report released this month (commissioned by the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies) points to incidents causing clusters of events, like those seen recently as a result of Hurricane Sandy.
“This is the sort of thing we were talking about,”…“You can debate the specific contribution of global warming to that storm. But we’re saying climate extremes are going to be more frequent, and this was an example of what they could mean. We’re also saying it could get a whole lot worse than that.”
– Climate Change Report Outlines Perils for U.S. Military (New York Times)
So now — if you and your family are so daring to take up the debate — as Linda Richmond of used to say,..”Discuss…”