Recently the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared that managing climate change could be a matter of life or death.
On Sunday, the Nobel Prize for economics was awarded to William Nordhaus for his research into the economics of a warming planet and carbon pricing. He endorses a universal tax on carbon.
It was also awarded to Paul Romer who researched why economies grow. His research showed that the key is innovation. Governments must foster research into innovation.
Both these men and the scientific community in general tell us that a shift is a priority and also feasible within the laws of physics and chemistry.
We need to shift from present practices to those that will make our planet sustainable. Polluting forms of energy, particularly those involving fossil fuels, must be stopped. This can be done by no longer supporting oil companies with tax breaks and other incentives of all kinds, not to mention new projects in a dying industry, costing millions.
Funds should be rerouted to clean energy and retraining our workforce to find employment to deal with this shift. We citizens must be protected from rising costs with a fee and dividend approach to carbon pricing. If we receive the dividends from carbon pricing paid directly back to us we can all pull our weight to bring ourselves into a good balance.
Let’s pressure our politicians to wake up and find the courage to do the right thing.
Marylee Banyard
Nelson