The Waxman-Markey Climate Change Bill that is being debated in Congress is one of the most important pieces of legislation of our generation. It will institute a cap-and-trade system on carbon dioxide emissions. Opponents have already begun fighting it-the "People of America's Oil and Natural Gas Industry" ran a full page ad in the Anchorage Daily News labeling it as a tax. Other industry lobbying groups are doing the same with television and magazine ads.
A cap-and-trade system will regulate large corporate producers of carbon dioxide by licensing and controlling the total amount of emissions. The permitted amount will then decrease over time. The Bill encourages capital investment in cleaner technology by allowing companies that reduce their emissions to sell their allotment to other producers. Similar legislation was passed in the 1980's to deal with sulfur discharge from power plants (the cause of acid rain). Goals were accomplished much more cheaply than estimated-today, sulfuric emissions are 35 percent lower, and sensitive lakes and estuaries are recovering from acidification.
Presently, fossil fuels get a free ride. They do not pay for externalities. This means that fossil fuels pollute the atmosphere, which affects everyone on all seven continents, but the producers and users of fossil fuels do not pay for the damage and mitigation. According to the Stern Report, an additional $1 on every gallon of gasoline (with similar increases on home heating and electrical utility fees) would be needed to reduce emissions and pay for mitigation. However, a cap-and-trade system, allows market forces to work, which can achieve the same results at lower costs.
Opponents claim the Bill will cost the average household an estimated $1,100 yearly, and since the economy is hurting, we can't afford it right now. But there is urgency. The goal of cap-and-trade is to limit damage to a two degree centigrade rise in global temperatures. Even this small temperature change will cause the extinction of a significant portion of earth's eight million species. Without cap-and-trade, temperatures will likely rise four to five degrees by the year 2100, with potential loss of up to 50 percent of species. A loss of this magnitude would have unpardonable negative impacts on future generations.
We still have much to discover from earth's rich diversity. As recently as the last Olympics, we learned that swimmers could glide through the water with less resistance if their swimsuits imitated sharkskin. The swimsuits were not really new high technology, but ancient technology. Sharks have been swimming around for 450 million years, and natural selection has optimized their skin with micro vee-shaped denticles that act like low-velocity hydrofoils. This same technique may some day help cars and planes move through air more efficiently.
Other things to learn from our rich diversity range from cures for cancer to life extension-tortoises live to be 240 years old by producing the enzyme telomerase that promotes better replication of mitotic cells. The Bio-mimicry Institute has described thousands of processes that nature does better than we do with our present technology. There is much to gain from the 3.8 billion years of research-and-development already carried out by our biosphere.
Cap-and-trade will not be painless. There are costs in the short run, but it will save so much in the long run. We send young Americans beyond our shores to fight and insure our supply of fossil fuels. They sacrifice for our chosen lifestyle. But what about the rest of us? Shouldn't we sacrifice-not only to bring our soldiers home, but so our children and grandchildren have a better place to live. This is where the grist meets the grindstone, where our moral character meets the fork in the road. It's now, or it's too late.
Darrell Keifer lives in Anchorage.
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