Spring is here in Anchorage. It's about a month earlier than it used to be, but who doesn't love a little bit of extra warmth with all that sunshine we've had? There is no doubt that I have enjoyed hiking the snow-free trails over the last few weekends. It makes me feel very grateful to live in one of the most spectacular places on Earth.
The thing is, I can't help feeling an internal conflict about how warm it is, and how strange that the plants are budding about a month earlier than normal. And another disturbing thing I've noticed on the way to the trailheads is this -- there's so much trash along the roadside! As I drove down both the New Seward Highway, and even more so along the Glenn Highway, I was stunned by the amount of garbage I kept noticing.
It struck me as really sad that people are literally trashing a place that is so beautiful. It's a reflection of how little regard our culture has for the environment. Not only do we throw our garbage on the ground, we are polluting the air we breathe with all the dirty fuel we use, and we are endangering the future of life on this planet by changing the chemical makeup of our atmosphere and oceans.
That gets me to the big holiday that's coming up this week, where we should be reminded to appreciate and care for this place we call home. It's Earth Day on Friday, April 22, and this is going to be a momentous one. Over 130 countries are joining together to sign the Paris Accord on that day (including the U.S. and China), to show they are unified in the goal of fighting climate change. Just take a moment to consider how big that is … 130 nations, all working together, to acknowledge we need to get this planet back on track so that it may remain safe for us to live here.
That kind of unity is absolutely essential to deal with the problems we face. And it makes sense to work together, because we are all in this together. Climate change is both a global problem and a local problem. In Alaska, we've seen more consequences of it than many other places in the U.S. The temperature is going up twice as fast, and we're seeing coastal erosion and village displacement, melting glaciers and sea ice, and increasing wildfires. In addition, the weather has become more unpredictable, with extreme heat in some places, and droughts offset by deluges of rain at other times. Food sources for our wildlife seem to be vanishing. Think of the murres that are dying because they can't get enough fish, and what suffers next in the food chain?
Many of us have heard about all of this, and yet it seems too overwhelming to do anything about it. As an individual, I certainly understand the feeling of powerlessness, and yet I still find a reason to believe we can turn things around.
The Paris Accord is a sign that the world is ready to act on climate. And while some U.S. politicians, including those from Alaska, are dragging their feet or downplaying the importance of the issue, there are others, both Republicans and Democrats, who do want to find solutions.
One idea that Alaska's senators and representative should support is a plan to tax carbon and to use the revenue collected from the fossil fuel companies to disburse it out to all the citizens of the U.S. as a dividend. This is very similar in concept to Alaska's Permanent Fund dividend. The "carbon fee and dividend" plan, as proposed by Citizens' Climate Lobby, has been studied by the economists of REMI (Regional Economic Models, Inc.), who have determined it would cut down on carbon emissions by one half within 20 years. They also estimate that it would add millions of jobs to the national economy.
The University of Alaska Anchorage's Institute for Social and Economic Research also studied how this plan would affect rural Alaska, where energy costs are already so high, and determined that the majority of households would benefit financially from the carbon fee and dividend.
This plan is a smart, market-based strategy to kick-start our economy toward a cleaner and safer future, with jobs being created at the same time. It is not a ploy to increase the size of government or ruin the economy. It is a way for the U.S. to start leading the world toward a smarter, sustainable future.
The members of Citizens' Climate Lobby here in Anchorage, and throughout the nation, are ordinary people who are working hard in their free time to try to make people aware of this idea and build grass-roots support for it.
It's time to stop treating the Earth like one giant landfill. I hope that on Earth Day, you will not only take time to cherish this planet, but also consider how you can help it by demanding action on climate change. The Anchorage CCL members invite you to join them on the day after Earth Day, Saturday, April 23, for a celebration called Kite Day in the Park. Come join us at Delaney Park Strip from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and learn more about how you can do something positive for this planet and experience some old-fashioned joy in flying a kite, thanks to the help of one of our most abundant and renewable resources: the wind!
Sandy Henschel is a member of the Citizens' Climate Lobby's Anchorage chapter.
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