The Climate: From recognition to effective action

Sir Anthony Giddens, a former Director of the London School of Economics, formulated the "Giddens Paradox". It goes like this:

Since the dangers posed by global warming are not immediate or visible to most people, they ignore them; but waiting for them to become visible and immediate before taking serious action will be, by definition, too late. This is a political and not a technocratic problem, he argues, and those in the climate-change lobby who get impatient with politics are wrong. Even the best technocratic scheme has little chance of success unless a way is found to achieve it through politics...

I would like to add a slightly different nuance, referred to as the "Knagenhjelm Paradox":

Each one of us is not equipped to comprehend the effect of the sum of our individual actions. Each person perceives his/her own actions as marginal and does not have a behaviour codex that will guide their decisions consistent with the cumulatively optimal outcome.

To overcome this conundrum I propose that we must create a political movement with a simple to understand objective:

A Carbon Added Tax (CAT) must be introduced. Governments can decide whether it should be a defined component of existing Value Added (Sales) Tax, or a separately identified component. It should reflect the amount of climate gas produced by the product or service in question.

This tax should be introduced by all countries above a certain GDP/Capita. The revenue should be earmarked for climate mitigation measures. Half should be deployed domestically and the other half in Less Developed Countries to save the rainforest, create CO2 sequestration projects and develop sustainable energy resources.

In developed countries the tax revenue should be used for:

• Feed-in tariffs for sustainable energy such as wind, solar, hydro electric and geothermal
• Removal of all tax on zero emission transport and energy solutions
  
• Cheap loans for insulation of the building stock

These measures must be designed to price harmful solutions out of the market.

This is the beginning of the Third World War. The enemy is ourselves - our own behaviour and everyday choices. As footsoldiers in this most dangerous conflict in human history, we must demand of our leaders that they lead from the front with courage and resolve. If not, they will be replaced by those who will.

Onwards and Upwards!