Early spring on our property shows need for Oregon cap-and-trade bill

Global warming is real. We humans are causing it. Urgent steps need to be taken to reduce carbon emissions.

These three facts are borne out by some photos I took a few days ago of how vegetation is leafing out much earlier than usual on our ten acres in rural south Salem, Oregon.

We've lived here for 28 years. This is really unusual plant behavior for February 4. The green shoots screamed to me, Global warming is making us do this!

Now, I'm old enough (69) and have lived in Oregon long enough (47 years) to run the risk of sounding like the proverbial geezer talking about the Blizzard of Ought-Eight, when the snow reached as high as grandma's chin.

But I sure do remember when December, January, and February here in the Willamette Valley typically were filled with weeks of solid rain, ice storms, freezing temperatures, and other weather nastiness. 

Such is much less common now. Temperatures are warmer. More precipitation is falling as rain in the mountains rather than snow. We've only had a few days of freezing temperatures. Our daffodils are getting ready to bloom.

Yes, I understand the difference between weather and climate. But I've got almost a half century of experience with western Oregon weather, and there's been changes over those years that certainly are due to global warming.

Which, of course, is caused by carbon pollution. 

Environmentalists, business people, and many others concerned about reducing Oregon's carbon footprint have been working on a cap-and-trade bill that is desperately needed. 

An Oregonian story briefly summarizes what the bill would do:

In addition to creating a limit on greenhouse gas emissions, the plan would require many of Oregon's largest polluters to pay for their emissions by purchasing allowances at an auction. The state would spend the proceeds from the auctions to reduce the financial impact to households, support projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help areas disproportionately impacted by climate change.

What's aggravating, though, is that the same story says that Democrats in the state Senate claim there isn't time in the shorter 2018 legislative session to pass the cap-and-trade bill -- even though Dems control both houses of the legislature and the governor is a Democrat.

So how long is it going to take? And another question: how much time does the world have to reduce carbon emissions? My answers: too long, and no time to waste.

Disturbingly, Governor Kate Brown didn't mention cap-and-trade in her recent State of the State address. Yet pleasingly, Nike has joined the Oregon Business Alliance for Climate, a group supporting the cap-and-trade bill.

Every day I get an email from Brown's re-election campaign asking for a donation.

Earth to Brown, via me: When you start pushing legislators to pass the cap-and-trade bill this year. and promise to sign the bill if it reaches your desk, that's when I'll start to consider contributing additional money to your campaign. 

Comments

[Rain Trueax]

I hope you understand how this would hurt the rural poor and actually do nothing except make some environmentalists happy. An auction might leave some farmers with no fuel but hey, who needs farmers, right?

Oregon this year is warmer than it's been in years BUT you are discussing a very small window of time to think you know what's causing the change as well as what can be done about it. Climate change is part of life on earth and has been since the beginning, which we can see not by human memories but by evolutionary and fossil evidence. Humans haven't been around that long to go making judgments that will hurt some to make others feel righteous.

Last year we had a lot of snow on our mountain passes. This winter, we drove south over the Siskayous in early January and there wasn't even snow alongside the road. That is different but what it means is harder to say. We might end up like Northern California in the middle of Oregon. As old ices melt, we may see the return of diseases for which we have no immunity. If the oceans rise too much or change their salinity, starvation will impact some places in the world. When some places that used to grow this or that product, like say soybeans, can no longer do it, others might be required but we are not a species that likes to adapt to change. We want to stop it. Most likely we cannot.

On how this is going to play out, time will tell as we are seeing changes in migration of hummingbirds and other places are seeing birds also change their patterns. Animals often are better at adjusting than humans who yell a lot but often can't actually do anything effective.

I might add that some of the ones yelling the loudest on eliminating use of fossil fuels enjoy taking a plane or a cruise-liner with no concern over what that uses for fossil fuel. It's all in whose ox is being gored-- pardon the expression,

[Rain Trueax]

I should add that the Paris accord and others like it have left the biggest polluting nations out there based on economic considerations. If we, as a species, get serious about climate change, it might already be too late, but it'll take the whole world not just a tiny part of it. Oh, and if you really want to worry, I read that the ozone layer is closing over the Antarctic thanks to reductions in one thing but thinning over populated areas due to possibly another thing and of course, climate change. Where humans are the real problem, this might be a self correcting problem -- not that we'll like that much. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/06/ozone-layer-not-recovering-over-populated-areas-scientists-warn

[Brian Hines]

Rain, I believe the cap-and-trade plan only applies to the 100 largest carbon polluters in Oregon, so it wouldn't affect farmers at all. And part of the money raised would to to help rural areas transition to a reduced carbon economy. Other states, like California, have a similar plan that has helped their economy, not hurt it. We need clean jobs for the 21st century, not dirty jobs best suited to the last century.

[Rain Trueax]

I commented on your take on this on my issues blog and the irony I saw in someone else, same morning cheering on the rocket to put a Tesla in orbit. Massive use of fuel and exciting news to them. I just see the idea of Oregon going it alone as a way to do nothing but hurt somebody. I don't know who the top 100 polluters are but you can bet that if you buy their products, you will pay more for this system... and if they have to compete in other states, you might find Oregon losing more companies. It always sounds so simple but today corporations can go anywhere-- including to Vietnam where they can pollute to their hearts content.

I read blogs from various ways of thinking and for some uber environmentalists all fossil fuel vehicles must be gone (they'd be fine if all humans died too since we are the cause of all this). There is no way all vehicles go electric but my husband, who is into techie startups said there isn't enough lithium in the world to fuel all vehicles. Electricity has to come from a source too even if the one plugging their auto into it isn't thinking about that end.

Why can't people look at balance as a way to use some things and cut use on others. Whether we are the direct cause of global warming, to the level it's going, it's not just one state or country. We can do something but when it hurts the people more than helps, then that just does not make sense to me.

[Rain Trueax]

Of course, they may find something besides lithium for the batteries, but everything has a cost. It might seem like it doesn't, but in the end it does.