You can learn a lot from your friends. I certainly do, every day of my life. And I'm grateful for this gift. Some of the things I learn are harsh and painful, exposing my weaknesses and faults. Some things are uplifting and inspiring, pushing me to be a better person. Other things are funny, creative and even whimsical. But I always assume that the lessons I learn are the truth, for the lessons come from friends, and I trust them.
Recently, I polled my friends on facebook on the issue of climate change. The question I posed was a simple one. I asked them if they thought the issue of climate change was real and serious. I now realize, thanks to one of my respondents, that I should've phrased the question better, and framed the issue around "anthrogenic", or human caused, climate change. I assumed, however, that most people, when they consider climate change in the modern context, would understand that we were talking about human caused climate change. I freely admit that I had a certain expectation as to the answers I would get.
I was pleasantly surprised at the response. More than 40 of my facebook friends took the time to respond. I was thinking of a possible response of around a dozen or so: this was a nice surprise. Forty of my friends represents about 10% of my total facebook friend count: of course, many of the 400+ people who are classified as friends are not frequent users of facebook, or are constant correspondents with me. Several of them are in foreign countries, and therefore may not understand the question. So the response was nice. The second thing that surprised me was the overwhelming answer of "yes" to my question. I expected "yes" would be the majority response, but the extent of the "yes" side was amazing. Only one person said "no", which is a fair and honourable response, and two others said "yes" with caveats. The rest said "yes" plainly, sometimes in capital letters, with exclamation marks, or other equally emphatic phrases. It was an education for sure.
The question phrased by one of my respondents was "where are you going with this?" Good question. Initially, I intended it for my own curiousity, to see if my views are consistent with other people's, and yes they are. But then I decided to blog this to try to put it all into some kind of perspective. No reader should be surprised by this.
Doug Ford has recently gone on a high-spirited campaign against the "carbon tax" that Ontario has originally planned to implement. The tax was to be part of an initiative that included cap and trade, which Ford earlier cancelled. Ford claims that a tax will be a strain on those who already "pay too much tax" or who are low-income earners. Ford also claims that a carbon tax would be a "job killer", scaring investors and companies out of Ontario. Ford also intends to challenge the federal government, which is about to implement a national "carbon price" across the nation, specifically targeting the provinces which do not have their own carbon price or tax: Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick. "Coincidentally", those provinces have Conservative or conservative-leaning governments. Ford intends to make this a hot-button issue in all upcoming elections, specifically aiming at Justin Trudeau's Liberal federal government, with the hope of defeating Trudeau and placing Conservative Andrew Scheer as the new Prime Minister. It's a long game Ford is playing, and there are some personal ambitions of his own on view for all to see.
Ford's gambit flies in the face of empirical evidence on the benefits of a price on carbon. When cap and trade was in effect in Ontario ( in a partnership with Quebec and California ), it seemed to work and some 3 billion dollars of revenue was earned by the provincial government which was supposed to be put toward implementing other solutions to the carbon problem. International studies have shown that carbon "taxes" have significantly reduced emissions in certain places, have not "killed jobs", and have, in fact, created a new economic sector, the sustainable environmental economy. Nobel prizes in economics were awarded to those who studied and supported this thesis.
And, finally, opinion polls have indicated that the majority of Canadians support some type of carbon price. Here's where my little poll comes in. In my little corner of the cyber world, more than 40 people, to varying degrees, agree that climate change is real and serious. I did not ask them if they supported a carbon price. But if a problem is that significant and serious, obviously some solution must be sought.
To be fair, there may be other solutions to the issue of climate change. Nobody has "THE ANSWER". But it seems to me that what we have in front of us is a start. If polluters are forced to pay, and if polluting by all of us ( private citizens and large corporations ) is no longer free or convenient, we will be forced into more positive initiatives.
Taxes are, generally, regressive. It's money out of someone's pocket. Nobody likes them, me included. But they are necessary. We all know that. And so, we pay them, grumbling all the while. Fair enough.
Sooner or later, the international studies show, we have to stop talking and debating about climate change, and start to take action. There are those who refuse to accept this, but most of us realize that it's true: the time for climate action is now. We have no choice. It really is a matter of survival for us as a species and for the earth as a planet.
I hope the 40+ of you who answered my little poll agree with me on this. Grumble all you want. But pay the damned tax. And insist our leaders stop turning this into an election issue. It isn't. It's well past that. It's survival.
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