Steve Sacks 1/25/2015 - Make polluters pay

Make polluters pay

 Many people believe that the free market is the best way to deal with economic issues. Right now, we all pay for the pollution in our air and water that is caused by corporations. We pay in taxes and with our health. What if polluters paid for their pollution?

That is exactly what is happening in British Columbia, Canada. Companies that pollute pay a fee for their pollution, and this money is paid to the people who live there. As a result of this carbon fee, companies have reduced their pollution and increased using alternative sources of energy, which has driven down the price for these alternatives. 

This would be a great thing to do in the U.S. It is a win-win situation for all. Supporters of this kind of carbon fee are as diverse as Exxon-Mobil, conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, as well as former Vice President Al Gore and the Citizen’s Climate Lobby.

All people, regardless of political belief, are going to leave the world to their grandchildren, and this would be a great way to insure that it is habitable.

STEPHEN SACKS

FRESNO

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/01/24/4344697_make-polluters-pay.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/01/24/4344697/make-polluters-pay.html

Don Gaede - 1/20/2015 - Pope speaks for the planet

 Pope speaks for the planet

January 20, 2015

   Kudos to Pope Francis for his upcoming encyclical regarding climate change. Contrary to some commentators, this is a quintessentially conservative approach. What is more conservative than preserving the only planet that we have been given?
   The idea that humans are the main cause of climate change is hardly a wild-eyed, far-left idea. The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, comprised of over a thousand scientists from 130 countries, declared last year that the evidence for a warming planet is “unequivocal,” and it is “extremely likely” that humans are the main cause.
   The pope’s concern for the poor is reflected in his concern about climate change, since its effects will be most harsh on those least able to cope with it. According to The World Bank, the areas most vulnerable to climate change, such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Sub-Saharan Africa, also have the largest number of poor who are dependent on agriculture.
   May the pope continue to be a voice for the voiceless, including our own planet Earth.

Don Gaede
Fresno

http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/01/20/4340302/pope-speaks-for-the-planet.html

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/01/20/4340302/pope-speaks-for-the-planet.html#storylink=cpy

Ray West 12-7-2014 - Tax toxic pollutants

Tax toxic pollutants

The toxic nature of the various pollutants in Valley air are without equal in quantity and diversity anywhere in the nation. Soot, ozone, ammonium nitrate and hydrocarbons may greet our lungs with every breath. This is in addition to the climate disruption going on throughout the world due to carbon dioxide emissions (The Bee, Dec. 3). The main culprit is burning carbon-based fuels such as wood, oil, natural gas and gasoline.

Put a price on this burning to reflect its true cost, and it will eventually go the way of chipped stone tools and acorn mush. That price does not have to be in the form of a “tax,” it can be collected at the source and returned back equally to everyone, leaving the government out of the loop. Then everyone could shop for cheaper, cleaner forms of energy, drive innovation at almost no cost to society and provide an economic boost into the bargain. 

We cannot legislate the chemistry and physics of combustion, or the geography of the valley. What we can do is legislate a rational market system that takes into consideration all of the costs of the way we produce and use energy. 

Ray West

Springville

 http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/12/07/4272028/tax-toxic-pollutants.html

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/letters-to-the-editor/index.html#storylink=cpy

Chris Breedlove 9-2-2014 - It's a brave new -- dry -- world

It's a brave new -- dry -- world
 
The drought has surpassed alarming levels and is becoming eerily reminiscent of desolate scenes from the 1979 dystopian movie, "Mad Max."What happens if exceptional droughts are the new norm for California? Why aren't Fresno meteorologists talking about the drought's correlation to climate change? Why aren't local elected leaders moving toward meaningful mitigation and adaptation?

The correlation of a warming Earth and extreme weather events deserves earnest attention. It's probable that climate change causes an erratic and wavy jet stream. Being on the high-pressure side of the jet stream, like California often is, results in drought.

Too often climate change gets lost in a charade of false equivalency where it's presented as an unsettled issue still up for debate. Meanwhile, NASA measures with great precision increasing global temperatures, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and diminishing mountain snow-pack. Also, the U.S. military and world governments, motivated by geopolitical interests, are readily game planning for a brave new world radically reshaped by climate change. But one would never learn about climate change's local implications from Fresno meteorologists or news media.

Chris Breedlove
Fresno

Read more here: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=15024C4E3774BF30&p_docnum=1#storylink=cpy

Don Gaede 11-17-2014 - Carbon tax is needed

Carbon tax is needed

Although some environmentalists may disagree, the Keystone pipeline is fairly irrelevant in the bigger picture of climate change. That Canadian sand oil will get transported and sold one way or another. The critical step to protect our climate is to dramatically cut our oil consumption.

To do that, many prominent economists, including conservative ones like George Shultz and Greg Mankiw, advocate a carbon tax. The revenues from the tax could either go back to American households, or be used to decrease other taxes. Either way, a carbon tax would stimulate the development of alternative energy — like plug-in electric vehicles, solar farms and even nuclear power plants.

The other advantage of a carbon tax: The marketplace would determine whether building a pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast makes any sense —not politicians.

Don Gaede
Fresno

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/11/27/4256026/carbon-tax-is-needed.html#storylink=cpy

Ray West 10-31-2014 - Bigger threat than graffiti

Bigger threat than graffiti

On reading The Bee's editorial, "Throw the book at Yosemite's Mist Trail tagger," (Oct. 28) the truth of one sentence leaped out at me: "To experience beauty is to yearn to possess it." Part of the outrage is that the vandal valued her own whim over a symbol of the bounty of the earth and debased it with a kind of greed.

Yet every one of us, every day, does more harm to the planet than a platoon of "CreepyTings" vandals. The industrial processes that fuel our material wealth are degrading the earth. Whatever the motivation was for this wilderness graffiti, I take it as a prophecy, a reminder that all is not well with our world.  

Ray West
Springville

Seth Tilley 6-12-2014 - It's smart business

It's smart business

American auto manufacturers fought against fuel-efficiency and emissions standards back in the 1970s and 1980s. While Europe and Asia focused on efficiency, we focused on short-term profits. This "win" for the industry resulted in American autos becoming less competitive in an evolving international market.

Now America has the opportunity to lead the transition away from a carbon-based economy, but we're, again, abdicating that role to countries like Germany and Japan. These countries are pursuing alternatives to carbon because "externalities" like poor air and water quality, increased healthcare costs, unstable energy supplies and pricing, international resource wars, and man-made climate change are simply too costly -- and the alternatives are better and cheaper. The externalities of carbon are crippling the U.S. economy, and making our planet less hospitable for humans.

Yes, the transition from fossil fuels must happen for the sake of future generations, but it's also smart business now. To remain economically competitive on a global scale America needs to discourage the carbon economy and encourage energy efficiency and renewable energy.

As businessman Jigar Shah has said, climate change is "the largest wealth creation opportunity on the planet." So why are we resisting this inevitability instead of leading the charge?  

Seth Tilley

Read more here: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=14E69BAF40D63FA8&p_docnum=2#storylink=cpy