Whether you’re a millennial or an elder, we’ve all got skin in the game when it comes to climate. Join us later today for “Lifestyles of the Successfully Sustainable: Saving the Planet and Your Sweet Existence” Thursday, April 18th, 2019, 4 – 5 pm, UCSD’s Pacific Hall #3500 , 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA. This talk is free and open to the public.
Let’s DO This.
When a product gets more expensive, people use less of it. And when pollution goes down, economies rise. So let’s imagine something wonderful.
What if… we had a bill in Congress that charged fossil fuel companies for their pollution, and it worked so well that the GHG emissions the U.S. keeps launching into our atmosphere dropped by half in about 10 years?
What if that same bill prevented millions of premature deaths because our air was so much cleaner?
What if that bill also helped protect our troops by keeping them out of harm’s way?
What if it created millions of clean energy jobs in the U.S.?
What if it had a border policy that encouraged other countries to follow suit AND protected U.S. jobs and U.S. companies?
What if this bill was way stronger than our Paris commitments, way more effective than the Clean Power Plan (hitting its targets for 2030 in just 4 years instead of 10 years), and much stronger than any EPA regulations – existing or pending?
What if 98% of the top economists all over the world said “This works. Pricing carbon is the biggest and most effective first step we could take toward solving the climate crisis.”?
Well we do. Yes Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus, this bill is real, and it’s called the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, HR763.
OK now bear with me… what if, in order for this bill to pass, we had to take all that money that we got from the fossil fuel industry for polluting our atmosphere and give it to other wealthy corporations, or political pet projects, stuff we may not like? Hmm… not so much?
Oh really? Knowing the severity and the urgency of the crisis we face, just how badly DO we want to save humanity?
Or on second thought… what if we make this bill socially just as well?
How about we distribute all that money from the fossil fuel industries to EVERYONE, equally, so there’s less political resistance and this bill can actually become law? What if those who can least afford the increases in goods and services end up with MORE money in their pockets than before this bill goes into effect? In fact, those with the lowest incomes, the bottom 60%, would end up ahead. The rest would break even, and only those who could best afford it, those with the highest carbon footprint, would begin see an increase in their costs – that is UNTIL they lower their carbon footprint!
So how do you like them apples?
No other bill that’s ever been proposed has come close to this.
We’ll be correcting the market failure that’s been built into our economy by massive and needless subsidies to fossil fuel industries since before any of us were born. It’s revenue neutral, which Conservatives like because it doesn’t grow government. It’s socially just, which Progressives like because it lessens the hardship on those already most burdened. We actually have a shot at passing this groundbreaking bill into law. Please learn more about the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, HR763 at EnergyInnovationAct.org
We need each of you to spread this knowledge and support this bill far and wide. This planet is our home, shouldn’t we try?
Human Rights At Risk: Our Livable Planet
Climate Change affects us all. Often those hardships are felt even more profoundly by those least able to adapt and recover quickly due to a lack of resources. Join us tomorrow, Saturday, April 13th, at 10 am. I’ll be speaking on our “Rights At Risk – Time to Take Action” to the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Del Mar-Leucadia Branch, at the Encinitas Community and Senior Center, 1140 Oakcrest Park Dr, Encinitas, CA All are welcome to this free event.
Knight in Shining T-Shirt
Isn’t he the cutest? I was so happy to see acclaimed environmental author and 350.org founder Bill McKibben again. This soft-spoken gentleman is one bad ass champion for our climate. Humanity owes him a huge debt. EnergyInnovationAct.org #PriceCarbon
“Pollution, Politics, and Your Personal Power”
Today, Saturday at 1 pm, I’ll be speaking to the League of Women Voters Leucadia – Del Mar branch on “Pollution, Politics, and Your Personal Power” It’s gonna be a doozy! Join us:) Saturday, April 6th, 2019, 1-3 pm, Carlsbad Senior Center 799 Pine Ave. Carlsbad, CA
Gratitude and Our Best Hope
I’m over the Moon to report that my Member of Congress, Rep. Mike Levin (D-49), has just joined an ever-growing field of policymakers to Cosponsor the Energy Innovation Act. Pricing carbon nationally in this socially just, and incredibly effective way is the biggest step we can take to significantly drop U.S. emissions quickly, and encourage other countries to do the same. It’s stronger than the Paris Accord, stronger than the Clean Power Plan, and it will lower carbon emissions far more than existing and pending EPA regulations. It protects family incomes, public health, and it creates jobs. When pollution goes down, economies rise. It’s exactly what we need right now. Please call, tweet (@MikeLevinCA), email, FB, Instagram, Mike to thank him for leading on climate. And urge your Congress member to do the same!
A Shared Call To Action
I’ve recently returned from Mentoring a huge Climate Reality Leadership training in Atlanta where we focused on social and environmental justice. Three mindblowing days with scientists, activists, policymakers, and compassionate changemakers. Among them, I joyfully ran into the wise-for-his-years, adorable, and incredibly well-spoken, youngest plaintiff of the renowned climate change lawsuit, “Our Children’s Trust”, Levy Draheim (pictured above). From the stirring evening of “A Moral Call to Action” in ML King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church with Rev. William Barber II and The Poor People’s Campaign, to Al Gore’s newest live climate presentation, to hearing from victims of environmental poisoning, cancer alleys, fracking, illegal coal ash dumping, and more. It was both staggering and inspirational.
I came back with a renewed desire to do all we can to improve our climate crisis, and I can’t think of a more effective and wide sweeping solution than the EnergyInnovationAct.org (HR763) Check it out and please urge your Congress member to Co-Sponsor it now.
