In a modern philospher poet's New Declaration he states the climate change equation in the most basic of language: "If you burn carbon-based fuels, this carbon will go into the air, and have effects in the real world."
It's really quite this simple.
We try to complexify things so that we can avoid the uncomfortable. We mine extravagant data to support our own static patterns while ignoring the obvious logic. To solve the problems associated with climate change we need to address a multi-dimensional reality. Where nature, culture, and consciousness collide, we can find perspectives that can help us authentically 'step-up' to a more mature level of awareness and develop the courage needed to act honourably in the face of profound adversity.
In the first part of this essay I drew a rough picture of the state of global climate change science where a general agreement exists on the human-induced nature of imbalance within our planetary biosphere. I also proposed the first two steps in what I see as being the basis of a functional policy framework that could work in this most unique of geo-political jurisdictions.
The first had to do with a grassroots, interdisciplinary education campaign around the science, ethics, and possible future we are facing on this planet at this time in history. The second was the proposition of the establishment of a provincial Land Repair Initiative where outreach centres across the province would engage citizens in educational and demonstrative projects that would employ applied restorative hydrology, reforestation, and soil building efforts. In brief I sought to integrate the need to inform the citizen about the realities our local and global ecologies with the need to make available the tools, techniques, and knowledge to directly enhance the health and resiliency of landscapes and communities across Alberta.
Part 2 of this essay concerns itself with measures that many will find more politically unpalatable. Once again though, I must state that the intention behind this essay is not to dilly-dally within the boundaries of contemporary political thought, nor skirt around the dominant culture. Instead I try to challenge and evolve the potentialities of our political sphere through proposition of what my experience has concluded is closest to the objective best climate change policy we can get to building in this corner of the world.
If you disagree with the ideas contained herein, then by all means, argue with me. If you see a hole in my logic or a monkey on my back, please propose alternatives or, if you must, get to swinging. Regardless, the discussion around the topic of how to live in our altered world must move forward. I believe that an authentic democratic process where thoughtful dialogue and organic intellectualism are put to task can revitalize the spirit of the citizen and change the stories we tell ourselves about our place, potential, and purpose in the Universe. It is only in such a fundamental transformation of our beliefs and behavior that we will have a chance at thriving through the challenges of future evolution on this planet.
And so, now to the meat and potatoes of what we should be doing regarding this climate change thing:
In the February 2012 Issue of Alberta Oil, Mike Cleland, former President and CEO of the Canadian Gas Association, makes the argument that the true cost of energy use must be made evident in our policy. Besides doing away with subsidies that promote energy use he brings a perspective to our current topic that we may well adapt in our purposes:
"We should also add Carbon pricing. Carbon pricing has become a political dead zone and governments have substituted stealthier methods: intrusive, costly and largely ineffective. If we want to deal efficiently with carbon, we have to bring pricing back and do it efficiently with carbon taxes."
It's been proposed before by a federal party that had not-so-slight difficulties in communicating and gathering support for it. A version of it has even come into force in that left-coast province that bounds our western frontier with a significant degree of controversy. While to even mention the words "Carbon Tax" in an Alberta restaurant over breakfast may invite furtive glances from neighbouring tables.
Why then, would an educated and politically informed individual such as Mr. Cleland publicly propose it to readers whose first initial response would likely be antagonistic?
Well, because, given the objective of lowering carbon emissions and transitioning to a renewable energy economy as quickly as possible, a carbon tax is the simplest and most integral policy option at our fingertips.
Expanding upon Derrick Jensen's logic in the beginning quote: we burn fossil fuels - we change the real world, to account for and mitigate the negative changes and adapt to emerging conditions, we need to better incorporate the signals we are getting from the real world into our human systems so as to alter our patterns of settlement and livelihood. We can and should experiment with including other methods of dealing with greenhouse gases in our overall energy-environment platform - Cap and Trade is just one example that demonstrates certain efficiencies. Overall though, I believe a carbon pricing scheme similiar to that modeled by Sweden should be at the nexus of Alberta's climate change policy for a few reasons and I thus include it as the third step in a climate change policy worthy of Albertans.
Augmenting our existing 'capish and trade' system where intensity targets, extravagant offset mechanisms, and private-sphere investments are the primary measures of action, the type of Carbon Tax I propose would take into account the amount of energy and carbon in fossil fuels and would affect corporations at a quarter to half the rate of the population primarily to change behaviour rather than to raise revenue in the province. It would probably start at around $50 per tonne (just enough to put all those B.C.'ers who try to pigeonhole Alberta as `backwards` in an uncomfortable spot ; ) ) and within 5-8 years move to the more scientifically sound amount of around 150$/metric ton or 35 cents per litre of gasoline. Revenue would go to an expanded public arm of the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation to be invested in public initiatives to be explored in step four of this essay (and of course, help fund, the rise of Land Repair Centres across the province).
One side of the coin of common sense in proposing a carbon tax similiar to that of Sweden's is that people need to have an incentive to change and that a change in the price at the pump or on the monthly electricity bill is the strongest indicator we have as a society that we need to seek alternatives. When we factor in the social and ecological costs to present and future generations in the everyday transactions of energy use, people are given another opportunity to wake up to the real and pressing concerns of dependency on non-renewable resources and the consequences of their use patterns on our local and global life systems. Hand in hand with popular education about climate change and the work of Land Repair Centre's across the province, a Pigouvian tax on carbon would spark creative responses to our shared energy-climate predicament while simultaneously growing our capacity to allocate resources to public initiatives that would enrich the environmental, economic, and cultural heritage we leave to those who will inherit our civilization.
This leads us to the other, and more tarnished, side of the common sense coin for introducing a carbon tax in Alberta. Where dominant political cultures will see the public as an obstacle to getting such a measure passed into legislation, I propose we utilize the ignorance, fear, and resistance that has built up around the topics of climate change and carbon taxes within the minds of humans that reside in Alberta as an opportunity to engage and establish a genuine dialogue around the future of our civilization. Really, I see the persuasion and implementation of a carbon tax here in the Province of Alberta to be one of the singularly most exciting challenges we have in aiming to revitalize the state of our democracy.
I say this because I sense an authentic hunger within many people within our province for a new organizing principle of societal existence. When we look at the history of humanity we can draw out substantial evidence to suggest that we are not happier when we consume more fossil fuels; indeed, I along with a growing movement of people across the planet, think that life could be better, overall, in a post-carbon society. Thus can it be seen that a carbon tax as policy measure not only affects positive change once it comes into action, but can do so also during its proposition phase in the public realm as part of an integral climate change policy discussion. Constructive talk where the interests of a carbon tax can be explored through democratic processes will help us to renew participation in both making decisions and getting things done, not only around the issue of climate change, but all the problems we face.
It is late in the climate change game. Had we been wiser and chosen a more mature path for the future of our province's economic evolution, we could've began implementing fiscal and monetary policy that steered us clear of climate changing developmental mechanisms in the 1970-80's. We didn't and hence do I call upon a economically sound and scientifically formulated carbon tax to give our proclivity of attachment to static patterns a kick in the proverbial behind. The convincing and the consequences of a Carbon Tax at the rates and timeline I suggest will require require sacrifices, but I do trust that, in the long run, we will be giving ourselves and our children a better foundation from which to build tomorrow's Alberta.
The fourth and final step to the climate change policy whose validity I am attempting to convince the reader of pertains to the field of Transition Investments and Adaptation Protocols.
Like my proposition for a Land Repair Initiative, Transition Investments and Adaptation Protocols encompass a wide range of societal measures that seek to simultaneously address local and global environmental and economic conditions in an effort to move us towards settlement patterns and cultural proclivities that can not only survive, but thrive, in the context of a climate changing planet. The following is not meant to be an exhaustive list of ways to invest our carbon tax earnings but it does attempt to demonstrate the extent to which we may have to begin re-ordering our households, our communities, and our provincial direction if we want to deal effectively with climate change.
I invite you to add, alter, and critique the measures on this list for it is in such causative efforts that we will end up with the highest degree of balance in our undertakings:
Provincial Net-Zero Shelter Standards - in the span of 5 years we could transition to all new commercial and residential complexes meeting requirements akin to and exceeding LEED Platinum standards. Instead of being energy sinks and resource drains, our buildings could provide energy, comfort, and ecological services to the humans and non-humans that exist in a given environment. Having designed and built my own small net zero dwelling in the Aspen Parkland bio-region of Alberta, I can attest first-hand to the myriad direct and indirect benefits we experience from taking the time to design passive solar oriented, super insulated, renewable electricity-powered dwellings.
International Land Repair Partnerships - a natural extension of our capacity building within the province in regenerative hydrology, forestry, and soil building is to bring our skills and resources to bear in areas on the planet that indicate global significance in issues of bio-diversity, human suffering, and ecological integrity. Whether it be through supporting novel international conservation measures, establishing alternative energy systems in areas of resource instability and strife, or providing financial and logistical support for reforestation efforts around the globe, Alberta could utilize its vast wealth and increased commitment to address climate change to move the world towards an age of environmental cooperation and international resource security.
Feed-In-Tariff Program - the transition to decentralized, renewable electrical generation is an essential component of responsible energy/climate change policy. Largely responsible for steering Europe's economic powerhouse away from coal and towards distributed solar, wind, and biomass generation, we in Alberta can learn from and adapt Germany's Feed-in-Tariff program details to work in our jurisdiction where electrical generation accounts for a massive amount of our per capita GHG emissions. A further benefit of a Feed-In-Tariff program is the development of trade-based private enterprise around installing and servicing residential and commercial electrical generation systems, thus diversifying our economy and the skillsets of the population.
Resettlement of the Rural - the trend towards mass movements of people and priority to the handful of large urban centres in our Province should be reversed if we wish to have prosperous local economies with high levels of regional food, energy, and cultural security. Lowering property taxes, building provincial institutions (health, education, infrastructural, etc) in rural municipalities, or setting contracting limits to the causes of urban sprawl are but a few directives that could be pursued in the interests of adjusting human settlement patterns to better resemble self-reliant nodal networks of natural, human, and technological capital able to deal with emergent global and local climatic conditions.
Roadway to Railroads - when it comes to marginal efficiencies of moving domesticated primates and our goods around, transportation by rail vastly outperforms transportation by truck in all situation except where liquid fuels energy is cheap & plentiful and settlement patterns have succumbed to the pressures of suburbanization. With revenue generated and rearranged by a suite of fiscal adjustments (including a provincial carbon tax) we can begin to rebuild a network of publicly owned and operated rail lines throughout and between our municipalities. Though it flies in the face of the 20th century trend towards individuated motion machines and threatens the average person's attachment of the ego and the car, the integration of various policy incentives and disincentives could enable Albertans to affordably travel and trade within and beyond the province long after the demise of the age of the combustion engined automobile and cheap flight.
Organic Agriculture- contrary to what many agronomists and agricultural outreach coordinators will tell you, our energy-intensive, high-pollution approach to agriculture cannot be sustained; it has no place in our long-term future of energy decline and rising climate instability and it cannot rival an organic agriculture when all inputs and outputs are taken into consideration. Instead of subsidizing and proselytizing an export-oriented industrial form of meeting human nutritional needs where chemicals controls are intrinsic and unnatural conditions are maintained, I would argue that an effective climate change policy and intelligent Alberta government would do all it could to promote a diversified agricultural sector where the ethics and principles of permaculture combine with the phenomenal advancements made in the science of organic food production. Though it might lower the GDP a little bit, the improved health of the public, the enhancement of our natural environment, along with more sustainable producer-consumer relationships definitely favours the pursuit of policy that fosters organic agriculture.
Shorter Industrial Work Week - inspired by hunter-gatherer cultures and many modern European countries, Alberta should move to lower the average work-week of citizens of the Province (from 44 to 32 hrs). At first glance, this does not seem to be directly related to the subject of climate change policy, however upon thinking of the potential consequences of such an action it is not difficult to see how many benefits could arise. Citizens would not have to commute as much; they could spend more time in their communities making life better while engaging in community projects that benefit the people and ecosystems they rely upon. With more leisure time people would probably become more educated and politically engaged; there would be more time to organize and develop local networks of democratic decision-making. Furthermore, the culture of work here in Alberta (one that is currently inundated with feelings of a desperate struggle to get by) would be altered dramatically with the grasp for money taking a subsidiary role to that of enriching the gift, cottage, and salvage economies.
These ideas are but the tip of a melting iceberg whose strength for a to call to action, I believe, is becoming greater and greater, day by day. As mentioned in Part 1 of this essay, we cannot be certain where we are in the timeline of global climate change nor even can we assume that our honest efforts in this Province will amount to anything more than a brave effort by a small minority of an immature species destined for a very unpleasant few millennia. To me, it doesn't so much matter and so I ask you, the reader, to set aside the cynical doubt promoted by our culture of excess and fear, become involved, and join your fellow citizen in a genuine engagement with the monumental crisis emerging as anthropogenic climate change. As a political sage once said "If thy aim be great and thy means small, still act; for by action alone these can increase to thee."
My aim, throughout this essay, has been to develop an honest set of means by which we can minimize our contributions to a future of climate chaos while maximizing the likelihood of democratic renewal, economic diversification and relocalization, and an enlightened evolution of our cultural tendencies. To address the challenges that climate change poses for us, we need to reconsider our blind pursuit of material progress and reorient ourselves towards balanced societal action and a cultural awareness of our own capacity to create a viable future for the human and non-human systems that call Alberta home.
A climate change policy worthy of Albertans will pursue a popular education campaign designed to inform and engage people in the role of citizens around the causes, problems and solutions associated with climate change. It will establish some semblance of land repair initiatives that seek to better the conditions related to our water, our land, and our soils. It will incorporate a very tangible measure by which people are able to gauge the true costs of continuing to base the patterns of their household and community livelihoods on non-renewable, climate changing sources of energy. And finally, it will seek to employ a set of measures that will promote a transition to regenerative, rather than degenerative human settlement patterns while helping households and communities adapt to more resilient ways of sustainably meeting our needs locally well into the future.
In this upcoming provincial election and over the course of the next few years, we will be granted ample opportunities to take a step back, look at the options before us, and begin making our way away from the insanities of business-as-usual and towards a maturity of perspective and preparedness in how we choose to live our day to day lives. In many ways, I see climate change as a defining issue of our time; everyone has already been touched by it while it, along with a host of other crisis, will come to increasingly dominate what we see and experience of the real world. One can only trust and act intentfully that we will come to identify the real from the unreal, the genuine from the fake, and the wise from foolish in time to salvage what makes this province and planet a place worth living in.
जय सच्चिदानन्द
-KSE
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