For the sake of conversation, let’s forget for a moment about what carbon and carbon emissions can do to our environment, and instead let’s consider just how much carbon can cost?
To clarify I’m not talking about going to a store, asking for some carbon and then swiping your Visa card. No, I’m talking about the actual monetary costs associated with all the damage and destruction that can be directly connected to our changing climate. Since we can accurately determine just how much climate change is costing governments, businesses, economies and inviduals – and we also know that the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change – we can then by association associate these costs to the burning of fossil fuels and the emitting of carbon.
Well the cost is in the Billions, if not the Trillions and it’s only getting higher. Once the price of carbon smacks you in the face as only real blunt force reality can do, the next question that needs to be asked is who is paying for it?
The answer to that question is effectively answered in this short video produced by The Climate Reality Project and is narrated by comedian and musician Reggie Watts. Have a look:
I don’t know about you, but my opinion is that while I’ve always been willing to pay my fair share of what I owe, the reality of this situation makes me think that as citizens, we are getting screwed!
The honest truth is that heavy carbon emitters have long fought against any initiative designed to make them pay for the carbon they dump into our atmosphere – an estimated 90 Million tonnes a day!
Most rational people could understand the logic of placing a charge on carbon so that those who cause the problem should be expected to pay more than those who are the victims. Until a firm price for carbon is put in place, polluters will never feel any pressure to become better stewards of our environment. These industries exist for profit which is why they don’t want to pay for their pollution because it only hurts their bottom line…and frankly they couldn’t care less what it does to you or the planet.
This is wrong and it’s time for the price of carbon to be shifted from you and I to those who actually cause the problem in the first place! It’s time to demand from your government that they grow a backbone and fight the heavy influence of the fossil fuel industry and other heavy polluters. For only when the real costs of carbon are placed upon those who deserve to pay for it will we ever find a leveraging tool that will force them to become more responsible citizens of this planet.
I’m tired of paying for their ignorance and indifference. Are you?!
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