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U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres:
“For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat. Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don't seem to be listening. We’re shattering global temperature records and reaping the whirlwind. It’s climate crunch time. Now is the time to mobilize, act and deliver.”
Like, maybe, international cooperation around a carbon tax coupled with carbon border adjustments, as recommended by all the economists?
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Join us Saturday, August 10 at 9 AM for the combined Marin/Sonoma CCL chapters' meeting
Our first guest will be Rachel Kerestes, CCL's new Executive Director, who will discuss her vision and our chapters' suggestions for CCL's future direction. Find out more about Rachel here and plan to attend here.
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Following Rachel, we'll hear from Robert Archer, Marin Chapter steering committee member and retired U.S. Agency for International Development Senior Energy Advisor, whose career focused on electricity sector reform in central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. (You can watch his talk on The Economics of Carbon Fee and Dividend here.)
Speaking at his recent Yale class reunion, Bob shared the stage with Nobel economics laureate, Yale Professor William Nordhaus, known for his advocacy of an international "Climate Club." Bob will present his half of the event, "Climate Policy Crossroads: Finding the Path to Global Impact." (Spoiler alert: it will come as no surprise that this path involves a carbon tax with a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), now being debated in Congress as the E.U. quickly moves forward.)
This will be a worthwhile hour.
Here's the 9 AM zoom link
Following the Marin/Sonoma meeting, join the National call at 10 AM
featuring Rewiring America
Rewiring America's VP of Investment, Aimee Whitman, is the former U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs, former Director of U.S. States Policy at the Climate Imperative Foundation, and she spent a decade at the McKnight Foundation designing and leading their climate grant making program. This was aimed at decarbonizing the Midwest economy and embedding democratic participation and racial equity into their climate portfolio. She'll discuss how recently-enacted federal funds will tackle the climate crisis and make the American economy stronger, cleaner, and more equitable.
Join here at 10 AM.
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CA State action opportunities:
Be on the lookout in mid-August for a possible call to action on two worthy California bills that CCL-California supports.
SB 308 Carbon Dioxide Removal
SB 1006 Electric Transmission Capacity
If they pass out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee on August 7 (which we expect), then CCLers will be asked to express support to their Assembly members. More info here.
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Here's another path to activism in this election cycle: get involved with the nonpartisan EVP, whose mission is to get environmental voters to actually vote. "We identify inactive environmentalists and transform them into consistent voters to build the power of the environmental movement."
Their leader, Nathanial Stinnett addressed CCL's D.C. conference on June 9. Watch his inspiring talk here.
Then watch how CCL is engaging in the upcoming elections, and how to make climate an electoral issue.
The Election Engagement Action Team is in full swing. You can help get out the climate vote!
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Forewarned:
How Project 2025 Will Gut Climate Regs
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Here’s where Kamala Harris stands on climate and energy:
CNN
NYT
VOX
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You’d think supporters of a climate policy endorsed by more than 3,600 U.S. economists, the UN Secretary General, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to name a few, would be riding high. Instead, many advocates of carbon pricing are on the defensive against skeptics who claim it can never work in America.
“The politics of tax-centered climate policy are hopeless,” declared New York Times columnist Paul Krugman in 2022. “This may be the optimal economic policy for reducing
carbon pollution, but as the centerpiece of climate reforms, it has proven a political disaster,” asserted two prominent University of California at Santa Barbara political scientists in 2020. That view has become conventional wisdom among many journalists as well. It also helps explain why drafters of the original Build Back Better proposal did not include carbon pricing.
But to call the cause of carbon pricing “hopeless” seems premature when a record 68 such programs covered 23% of all global emissions in 2022, according to the latest World Bank
report. America’s leading trade partners–the European Union, China, Canada, and Mexico–all use some form of carbon pricing. At the start of 2023, Washington state bounced back from its previous setbacks and began implementing a new “cap-and-invest” carbon pricing system. A rising carbon tax reportedly came within one vote of being included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Climate activists are not about to give up on a policy instrument described by the IPCC in 2022 as “one of the most widely used and effective options to reduce GHG emissions.”
Here's the link to hone your arguments in favor of a carbon tax, learn what the rest of the world is doing and gain some hope by perusing this informative brief by Jonathan Marshall, Economics Research Coordinator.
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The argument for a carbon price
We are paying a price for fossil fuels, but that price is not paid by those that burn the fossil fuels – we need to change that.
It is a mistake to believe that we are not paying for emitting greenhouse gases. Even if we do not pay a monetary price for carbon emissions we do pay a very large price: the consequences of climate change.
Without a monetary carbon price it is those who have the smallest emissions that suffer the largest costs from climate change. A carbon price, in contrast, means that those who cause the emissions also pay for them.
A key reason why voters are not in favor of carbon pricing is that many believe it won’t actually reduce emissions. But empirical research and theory show that this is wrong: pricing carbon emissions – either via a carbon tax or a ‘cap and trade’-system – is effective. It shifts production and consumption from carbon-intensive goods and services to low-carbon alternatives and does reduce emissions.
Many are deeply concerned about climate change yet feel hopeless that anything can be done to meet this challenge. Increasing the understanding that carbon pricing works, correcting common misconceptions, and showing that there is a way forward are key steps for a successful fight against climate change.
Read more:
Our World in Data
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NBC Report: The Great Arctic Melt
Watch this superb, disturbing report, then ask yourself, "How can we possibly quell demand for fossil fuels as long as they remain artificially "cheap?" (Addressed vaguely in the last 5 seconds of this 5 minute piece.)
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Activate Your Community Network with a CCL talk! | |
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We're available for speaking opportunities in our community. Can you help spread the word?
Our chapter is fortunate to include several accomplished climate educators who are ready to engage your network with a customized presentation (at no cost.)
If you have contacts at local schools, universities, community clubs (service, social, hobby, professional), faith communities, town councils, local government agencies and the like, please contact us at marincclchapter@gmail.com.
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Do Not Miss This Series!
If you've already seen it, watch it again. You'll then understand how we got into this mess -- Denial, Doubt and Delay -- and what it will take to get us out: Massive popular political pressure supporting robust solutions that this industry and their agents will inevitably oppose.
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R.I.P, Senator Inhofe, one of the stars of this show. | |
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You're invited, but...
This is how one behaves inside The Capitol:
Make an appointment. Business attire recommended. Bring nothing that even looks like a weapon.
Long live Democracy.
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Prepared by Peter G. Joseph, M.D.
Peter.Joseph@cclvolunteer.org
Apologies for cross postings.
If you know someone who would like to be added to this distribution list, please suggest they join CCL.
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