In 1980, at the height of the nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and the U.S., Frances Crowe and Randy Kehler and others put on the ballot in western Massachusetts a proposal to put a freeze on the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons. It got 64.5% of 63,855 votes and put the nuclear weapons freeze on the map.
Two years later the freeze was on the ballot in 10 states and D.C. It won in all but one state and passed in the U.S. House. Earth went from having 63,632 nuclear weapons in 1985 to about 12,700 in 2022.
On the Nov. 8 ballot, voters in western Massachusetts have another chance to change the course of human events, for there will be a proposal, Question 5, instructing state representatives to introduce and vote for legislation that puts a fee on the carbon content of fossils fuels to compensate for their environmental damage with the proceeds to be returned equally or equitably to individuals.
The carbon cash-back is Question 5 in all of the 1st Hampshire District represented by state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, and all of the 1st Franklin District represented by state Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Sunderland, except in Shelburne, where it is Question 6.
The carbon cash-back is also on the ballot in the 5th Worcester District as Question 5, except in Ware, where it is Question 6.
The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas (GHG), into the atmosphere. This traps heat, much like leaving up the windows in a car on a hot summer day. We can always roll the windows down in our cars, but we can’t do that with Earth. It’ll just keep getting hotter and hotter, and each molecule of CO2 is like adding another layer of glass in our cars.
Humans are dumping 52 billion tons of greenhouse gases into the air every year. That causes global heating, which paradoxically causes both droughts and flooding because as air gets hotter, it holds more moisture, causing droughts, but releases it in torrents, causing floods.
Other results of global heating are glacial melting, sea level rise, and more intense storms. These in turn lead to mass migrations from the lower, hotter latitudes to the higher, cooler ones. This is happening in the movements of people from Africa to Europe and from Latin America to the U.S.
It took millions of years to form the fossil fuels we have burned in the last 160-plus years. The megatons of CO2 that we are dumping into the air each year will stay there for centuries and cause more global heating.
Each gallon of gas we combust dumps another 19 pounds of CO2 into our air. And every one of the nearly 8 billion people on Earth will exhale an average 5 tons of CO2 over a lifetime. The fossil fuel companies are largely to blame, but as the cartoon character Pogo said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
But experts tell us there is a fast way we can reduce our CO2 pollution: put a price on carbon, that is, on the carbon content of fossil fuels. That’s exactly what Question 5 proposes — a fee on the carbon content of fossil fuels with most of the proceeds to be returned to people.
Returning the fee to individuals means that about 85% of people would get more money back than they would put in. Only jet-setters and others with a huge carbon footprint would pay more than they would get back.
A fee on carbon doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be subsidies for non-carbon sources of energy such as wind and solar and rebates for electric vehicles and heat pumps. But a carbon fee will incentivize people to conserve, get more efficient, and use non-carbon energy.
Question 5 is non-binding as was the nuclear weapons freeze. It is like a public opinion poll on the ballot to see if people are willing to make a small sacrifice now to save the future of humanity and possibly of our planet. Or as Berkshire environmentalist Tom Stokes stated, “It’s going to take more than changing a few light bulbs.”
So on the Nov. 8 ballot, give our good green, blue and white Earth and all the life on it a chance, and please consider and vote for Question 5, the carbon cash-back.
Tim Walter was the Plainfield solar coach and is the chair of its energy committee.