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We need a carbon tax in the world's wealthiest countries. Such a tax is the most efficient and effective way to eradicate air pollution and global warming. I will assume my readers are already sold on the urgent need to solve these twin problems, if not, I would refer them to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's website and to the Los Angeles skyline. Unlike the current situation, a carbon tax would force polluters to pay the true cost of their pollution. So, if you want to do a 150 kilometer-per-day commute, it's going to come down hard on you, as it should. The revenue could be used for smart urban growth, clean electricity, plug-in hybrid vehicles, etc.
We are not on pace to power our transportation and economy with clean, renewable energy. Scientists say that to avoid the worst impacts of global warming we must reduce our CO2 emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. This will not happen unless everybody becomes a passionate environmentalist, or we make polluting more expensive. The sad fact is, when things are cheap, people waste them.
Many may argue that this policy is unfair to the poor. I say, the current system is unfair to the poor. The poor typically endure the worst of air pollution and will have the fewest resources to cope with global warming. Many of the poor in the U.S. must endure life in suburbs which practically force them to drive everywhere at a huge cost (suburbs are a direct result of cheap gasoline). The very poorest, still a majority of the global population, do not own their own vehicle. Cheap, dirty, finite energy stands in the way of the clean, renewable, energy economy that is essential to the continued survival of the human race on anything like the scale we see today, and anticipate for the near future. The carbon tax is the only realistic way I see of getting there.
