E.F. Schumacher and 3 Ideas the Climate Activist Should Embrace

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on August 16, 2014 by Eric Cesnik.

Dead people have some of the best ideas. Unfortunately, since they aren’t around to tweet, blog, or pop-up on CNN, we sometimes lose track of great thinkers even when their ideas have staying power. And so it is with E.F. Schumacher, author of Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, a classic first published […]

Rep. Chris Van Hollen Introduces Cap-and-Dividend Bill

This entry was posted in Legislation, Pure Cap-and-Dividend on July 30, 2014 by Eric Cesnik.

Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland wins the first annual Cap Carbon Now Legislator of the Year Award for introducing the Healthy Climate and Family Security Act of 2014, a cap-and-dividend bill. Yes, Van Hollen introduced similar legislation in 2009 and it died in committee. But the fact that Van Hollen has reintroduced a cap-and-dividend […]

Flight 447 and the Climate Crisis

This entry was posted in Obama, Pure Cap-and-Dividend on May 31, 2014 by Eric Cesnik.

Five years ago tonight, in Rio de Janeiro, 216 passengers and 12 crew members boarded Air France flight 447 bound for Paris. The overnight flight takes about 11 hours. Many passengers would have been sleeping – some stretched out flat and comfortable in business class, others wedged in with their necks aching in economy – […]

Worried About Fugitive Methane Emissions from Fracking? Embrace Pure Cap-and-Dividend

This entry was posted in Back to Basics, carbon tax, Natural Gas, Pure Cap-and-Dividend, Science on March 20, 2014 by Eric Cesnik.

The current debate over “fugitive methane emissions” from natural gas systems – meaning emissions of unburned gas from the drilling site and from leakage in the natural gas transportation and distribution pipelines – illustrates the need for a broad-based climate policy. Pure Cap-and-Dividend answers this need, covering as many anthropogenic (human-caused) sources of greenhouse gas […]

Deadline Today for Keystone XL Comments

This entry was posted in Keystone, Obama on March 7, 2014 by Eric Cesnik.

Today is your last chance to provide an official comment to the State Department regarding whether the Keystone pipeline expansion should be approved. Most environmental organizations are urging the president to block the pipeline – 350.org suggests that if he approves Keystone XL, Obama will become the “pipeline president” – but is stopping Keystone XL […]

Global Warming Sure Can Be Cold: Cold Snaps and Climate Reversals

This entry was posted in Conservatives, Science on February 28, 2014 by Eric Cesnik.

Record cold weather on the East Coast this winter emboldened a few climate change skeptics to make some pretty interesting remarks. Rush Limbaugh went on a rant, complaining that the media “just created” the concept of the polar vortex to explain the recent cold snap. (Never mind that the concept has been around for over […]

The Snickers Effect: Addressing a Conservative’s Doubts About the Human Contribution to Climate Change

This entry was posted in Conservatives, Pure Cap-and-Dividend, Science on December 17, 2013 by Eric Cesnik.

After seeing my most recent update on LinkedIn, my conservative friend Michael Perullo responded to express some doubts about Pure Cap-and-Dividend, my proposal to cap greenhouse gas emissions. Mike wrote: “We must dramatically reduce OUR greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change? No matter the incentives, how could man ever MATERIALLY impact atmospheric CO2? There […]

Decoding the “Price on Carbon” Jargon – Part II

This entry was posted in Back to Basics, carbon tax, Pure Cap-and-Dividend on December 5, 2013 by Eric Cesnik.

In today’s New York Times, Coral Davenport reports, “More than two dozen of the nation’s biggest corporations, including the five major oil companies, are planning their future growth on the expectation that the government will force them to pay a price for carbon pollution as a way to control global warming.” That’s great news. And […]

Decoding the “Price on Carbon” Jargon

This entry was posted in Back to Basics, carbon tax, Pure Cap-and-Dividend on December 2, 2013 by Eric Cesnik.

Academics serious about addressing the climate crisis agree: we need to put a price on carbon. But it’s tough to sell an idea without a shared vocabulary and many people are unclear about what this phrase – “put a price on carbon” – even means. Still more are puzzled by terms like “cap-and-trade,” “fee-and-dividend,” and […]

A Way Around Keystone XL

This entry was posted in Keystone, Obama, Pure Cap-and-Dividend on November 8, 2013 by Eric Cesnik.

A recent New York Times article (“Looking for a Way Around Keystone XL, Canadian Oil Hits the Rails”) describes how, even if the Keystone XL pipeline is not built, much of the Canadian tar sands oil will make it to market. And the oil will come by rail, a more carbon intensive and perhaps more […]