Climate change is a huge problem, but it is not strictly an environmental problem. Of course, the problem shows itself through the environment just as a serious illness may show itself through symptoms of fever, chills, and weakness. Yet, like a serious illness, it won’t be solved by the equivalent of taking a couple of aspirin to reduce the symptoms.
Climate change is a problem of ethics, freedom, energy, public health, social justice, and technological lock-in. It is also a problem of taxation without representation.
How does climate change impose a tax on us? For one thing, we pay the costs for hurricanes, droughts, and floods of ever-increasing frequency and intensity.
If we continue with business as usual, in fewer than 50 years some may be rendered unproductive because it will be below sea level. To protect only New York City initially, and eventually far more. And that’s just one coastal city.
Over the longer term, if you work outdoors or lack access to air-conditioning, during portions of the year you will face severe health risks and potential death. Some states in the Southeast, lower Great Plains, and Midwest risk up to a 70 percent loss in average annual crop yields. Delaying action on climate change could cost the U.S. economy $150 billion each year.
We all pay for this in the form of lost jobs, increased costs for health and property insurance, higher food prices, and higher taxes to reimburse federal and state governments for recovery from drought-related crop failures and extreme weather events. Government will grow bigger because it is the insurer of last resort.
Because of the time-scale of these effects, these costs are imposed not only on us but also on future generations. I believe it is unconscionable to tax the unborn.
Adding insult to injury, the . And this does not include military, health, climate, or local pollution costs. These subsidies come despite the fact that the fossil fuel industry is unimaginably profitable ($271 billion in profits in 2012).
Do you remember voting for any of this? I don’t.
Perhaps that’s because we’re facing a problem of taxation without representation. A recent study in Perspectives on Politics analyzed 1,779 policy outcomes over a period of more than 20 years and found that the preferences of business and the economic elite than the preferences of ordinary citizens in determining public policy.
In the case of fossil fuels, this taxation without representation may have something to do with the fact that the fossil fuel industry’s annual lobbying expenditures and political contributions amount to .
It’s time for patriots to step forward and reclaim our democracy. Instead of throwing boxes of tea into Boston harbor (tea owned by a large multinational company), we can work to create the political will for a livable world.
Chris Hoffman is an independent consultant and is a member of the Boulder chapter of .
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