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On June 5, communities around the world marked the 36th annual UN-sponsored World Environment Day. This year’s slogan, “CO2:Kick the Habit” was underscored by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon who in a prepared statement said: “Our world is in a grip of a dangerous carbon habit. Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us, makes us deny important truths and blinds us to the consequences of our action.”
The next day, the US Senate demonstrated just how blind it is by scrapping the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, the most serious piece of climate change legislation yet to reach Congress.
As the world burns, you have to wonder what planet these folks are living on.
Others have pointed out that the bill was a flawed piece of legislation that needed to be fixed or ditched. Still, the fact that Senators voted to close debate after only a few days is a disappointment: Climate change needs greater attention from political leaders, not less. But far more disturbing are the arguments that were used to fight the bill.
As Eric Pooley writes at Time.com the most common critique of the Lieberman-Warner proposal was that it would wreck the economy.
According to Pooley:
“The Republican leadership spent last week trying to create not just a new litmus test for climate action but a new third rail for American politics: It wants any climate bill that causes the slightest increase in energy prices to be seen as a non-starter. … That's an impossible standard to meet, and if the Republicans succeed in establishing it, Congress may never get this done.”
To head off this price line of attack, climate justice activists need to do a better job of marshalling evidence — studies, reports, graphs and pie charts — showing that addressing climate change will be far cheaper than inaction.
Yes, tackling climate change will entail government investment, and that investment will likely be paid for through some mechanism for pricing carbon emissions. Transitioning to a low carbon economy will cost money to build a clean energy infrastructure. It will cost money to rebuild our long-distance trainline and revitalize our mass transit system. It will cost money to give homeowners an incentive to weatherize their homes and buy energy efficient appliances.
All of which, in the long run, will save money … and, hopefully, the planet on which we depend.