Fifty Years Later: The Moon Landing and Our Overheating Earth Back Home

For all I know, the old yellow mailbox was there on the porch on July 20th, 1969. The Takoma Park homeowners must have gotten letters from relatives and friends afterwards, everyone explaining where they were when astronauts first walked on the moon in black-and-white TV glory.

When I moved into the house in 1991, the aged, free-standing mailbox was still there, at the top of the porch stairs. For nearly two decades it remained. Then, about ten years ago, something odd happened. Bigger and bigger storms – including the 2011 Derecho — kept blowing the unattached mailbox (and lawn chairs) right off the porch. I put a stone in the back of the mailbox but the winds got stronger still. Last year I finally gave up and screwed in a new mailbox directly into the porch wall. 

As extreme weather stories go, I’m lucky. I don’t have the surprise cascades of water flooding my basement or trees pancaking whole rooms like many Washingtonians. But here’s the truth: We all have climate stories now. 

And so this week, as we mark the 50th anniversary of the first moonwalk, many people are thinking much more about the planet Earth than the faraway moon. So much has changed here at home since those first “Earthrise” photos appeared from Apollo. The massive, white polar ice caps, seen in the late 1960s through wispy clouds on an otherwise blue planet, have substantially disappeared. “It’s like looking at your ‘60s high school yearbook photo compared to who you are now,” says author and activist Bill McKibben. “That old Earth is long gone.”

What a leap of sci-fi imagination it would have taken for those 1969 Americans, so full of optimism and technological hope, to see us now: Washingtonians in July 2019 scrambling to the roofs of their cars to avoid drowning after six inches of rain fell in some places in one hour. The same city experiencing a heat index approaching 115 degrees by the end of July. Shopkeepers, meanwhile, in Annapolis and Norfolk and worldwide, boarding up waterside shops because those same blue oceans – so serene from space – are now massively swelling and crashing into continents.  And across the DC area, beginning about ten years ago, varieties of the heat-loving Palmetto tree are now able to grow year round.

The same scientific method that got us to the moon has, for the past 50 years, been telling us the planet will warm and unravel if we keep using fossil fuels. Yet here we are today, still with no inspired national strategy – no 10-year moonshot plan — to solve the problem in the few years scientists say we have left to try. 

Core blame, of course, rests with the oil companies like ExxonMobil who have funded climate-denying politicians and think thanks to confuse and lie to the public. But one day soon, to the sound of investigative gavels pounding on Capitol Hill, those same companies will wish they were the tobacco industry based on the staggering health implications and legal liabilities of their deception.

More immediately and locally, I worry about the media coverage of this crisis. Climate-enhanced Lyme disease is skyrocketing (I’ve suffered for ten years). Local vinyards are shutting down due to devastating early blooms. And, god, the flash flood warnings – beeping and flashing — blow up our phones almost daily. And yet the coverage in the Washington Post and elsewhere – while growing – is patently insufficient in volume and in connect-the-dots context. Yes, Post cartoonist Tom Toles’ keeps it real with his near-weekly focus on the irony and urgency of climate disruption. But shouldn’t every reporter and nearly every columnist be covering the issue with Tolesian frequency and urgency? Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks, a lifelong fisherman who has seen his favorite rivers and bays physically changed by global warming, recently pledged that one-third of all his columns will henceforth relate to climate change in some way. “What story is bigger than this?” Rodricks asks.

Finally and sadly on this moon walk anniversary, here’s a message for Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos: stop investing in space travel. Bezos’ quixotic company Blue Origin won’t be colonizing space anytime soon if that fragile, original experiment with organized life shuts down on the only blue planet we know. Better to put those billions of dollars into expanded Post coverage of the climate crisis and into direct financial investments in a moon-shot plan to electrify the Earthly economy with wind and solar power within the decade. 

Finally, finally: If I could write a hopeful letter to the 2069 inhabitants of my home – both the Takoma Park ones and the planetary occupants – what would I say? Here’s what: “Happy 100th anniversary of the moon walk. Thank god we learned the right lesson – in time.” 

Mike Tidwell is director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network

The Tale of the Loud Neighbor: An Argument for a Tax on Carbon

The following is a blog post written by CCAN volunteer Andrew Crane-Droesch. In this satirical piece, he illustrates the benefits of a tax on carbon by telling the story of loud, obnoxious neighbor that needs to turn the volume way down. Take a look!
This is a blog post about carbon taxes. But before I go there, let me tell you a story about a guy named Ernie.
Ernie lives in a small condo in a big city. He has many neighbors, and the walls of his unit are thin. Ernie can hear the muffled voices of his neighbors in the hallway when he comes home from work.
When Ernie is home, his likes to listen to music. His favorite bands include Gorgoroth and Vanilla Ice. Ernie has a powerful stereo. He likes to listen to his favorite songs with the volume turned all the way up. He doesn’t like headphones because they aren’t comfortable.  And they make it difficult to copy Armi ja Danny’s sweet moves.
Ernie’s neighbors don’t like this. They have politely asked Ernie to turn down his music. Ernie resists, saying that his music makes him happy. He argues that sometimes his neighbors are loud too, and he doesn’t like their music either. He argues that this is a free country, dammit, and he can do what he wants.
So the neighbors start playing their own music louder to counteract the NKOTB marathon coming out of Ernie’s apartment. Nobody can sleep. People are starting to lose their hearing. The cats have all run away. What can be done?
 
Externalities
Ernie’s loud music is an example of an externality. An externality is the cost born by others of anything done for oneself. Ernie experiences pleasure listening to Color Me Badd really loudly on his stereo. But his fun comes at a cost to everyone around him. His neighbors don’t get any pleasure from his music, but they’re the ones losing sleep. And they can’t get the Electric Slide out of their heads.
Does this sound familiar? Externalities are an annoying part of everyday life. One person’s cool motorcycle is someone else’s interrupted conversation. Someone’s relaxing cigarette break is another person’s asthma attack. That sinking feeling that you get when you realize that you’ve stepped in dog doo? An externality.
How can we deal with externalities? It is usually a good idea to start simple. Ernie’s neighbors can try harder to talk to him. Regulations governing motorcycle mufflers, designated smoking areas, and dog waste can be adopted.
 
Pigovian Taxes
But some situations call for a Pigovian tax. Named after the British economist Arthur Pigou, a Pigovian tax increases the price of a public nuisance until the costs (to society) equal the benefits (to individuals). When a nuisance is more costly, less of it is produced.
Back to Ernie. The neighbors could decide to get together and implement a Pigovian tax in the form of a volume fee. Everyone in the building gets a sound monitor just inside of their front door. Any time the music goes above some volume, a surcharge is levied on the person making the noise. So if Ernie wants to really get down to the Archies, he’ll have to pay a little extra.
Pigovian taxes have a bunch of nice features.
First: they change behavior. Ernie will probably turn his music down if the price is high enough.
Second: they spur technological innovation. Ernie might decide that it is finally worthwhile to invest in soundproofing insulation, or get some Bluetooth headphones.
Third: they are flexible. Ernie can decide whether he wants to lower the volume, invest in insulation/headphones, or just pay the fee sometimes.
Finally: they raise revenue. The neighbors can spend the money on soundproofing, fix the leaky roof, or just divide up the money and put it into their pockets.*
 
Carbon fees
What does carbon pollution have in common with Ernie’s Tom Jones marathon? The benefits go to the few and the costs are charged to the many.
Unless we do something, here in DC we’ll get worse heat waves, stronger storm surges, and, in a few centuries, sea-level rise that will turn Capitol Hill into an island and the national mall into a swamp. Globally, food production will plummet, species will go extinct, storms will get worse, some countries will cease to exist, and others will be sources of climate refugees. If we let these things happen, it won’t be because anyone wants them. It will because people want to burn fossil fuels, and aren’t bothered by the fact that others – including their children – will bear the consequences.
Scientists and economists on the left and right agree that a tax is probably our best policy option for fighting climate change. The idea is simple: if it costs money to burn carbon, (1) you’ll burn less of it, and (2) you’ll figure out other ways to accomplish your goal without burning carbon.
So, businesses in DC might decide to stop air conditioning the sidewalk during summer if their electricity bills go up. Builders and homeowners can demand better insulation and more efficient appliances. Individuals and businesses can switch to renewable electricity providers, and those providers will get more customers because their energy will be cheaper in relative terms.**
What do we do with all of the carbon tax money we collect? Different people have different ideas. CCAN is pushing for a rebate system, in which the money would go directly to DC residents. This would help fight inequality here in the district – rich people usually pollute more (and thus will pay more), but everyone will get the same check. This proposal is actually very similar to the approach advocated by Bernie Sanders in his recent presidential bid.  And it is nearly identical to a recent proposal by a group of republican elder statesmen.
Ultimately, the choice of how we respond to a carbon fee is up to each of us. Nobody is going to tell you how to live your life or run your business.  But we’re going to be asked to pay the cost of the messes we make. And if we all have to do this, hopefully, there will be a smaller mess.
 
Andrew Crane-Droesch has a PhD from UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, and works as an economist for the federal government.  He has written this blog post in his capacity as a private citizen.  His views expressed here are his own, and do not reflect those of the federal government (obviously).  He actually *likes* Gorgoroth.
 
*If the money just goes back to the residents — including Ernie — why would Ernie’s behavior be affected?  Because he is taxed according to his own noise, but he is paid according to the average noise of everyone in the building.  So if he makes more noise than average, he’ll lose money.  Likewise, good neighbors would stand to benefit.
 
**This is because the price of dirty electricity will go up while the price of carbon-free electricity stays the same.  However, if enough people sign up for renewable energy through the energy choice program, the cost of carbon-free electricity may actually go up in the short term.  This is basic supply and demand.  But the market will adjust over the longer term.  Seeing all of the demand, more renewable energy producers will enter the market, and the competition will drive prices down.  And as there is more renewable energy production, economies of scale will begin to emerge.  For example, there will be more companies around that specialize in servicing wind turbines.  That will lower the cost of wind turbine service, lower the cost of generation, and ultimately lower the absolute cost of renewable energy compared to what it was at the start.
 

A Big Fracking Lie

Politico Magazine
By Bill Mckibben and Mike Tidwell
If you want to know just how bad an idea it is for America to ship “fracked” natural gas to overseas markets, travel the 65 miles from the White House to a place called Cove Point in southern Maryland.
There, right on the Chesapeake Bay, the Obama administration wants to give fast-track approval to a $3.8 billion facility (12 times the cost of the NFL Ravens stadium) to liquefy gas from all across Appalachia. The new plant, proposed by Virginia-based Dominion Resources, would somehow be built right between a coveted state park and a stretch of sleepy beach communities, with a smattering of Little League baseball fields just down the road. Along the Chesapeake itself, endangered tiger beetles cling to the shore while Maryland “watermen” hunt crabs and oysters in age-old fashion.
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Exporting natural gas is a bad deal for Maryland

The Washington Post
By James McGarry
Imagine somebody offered you a deal. First, you have to agree to take a pay cut at your job. Second, you have to agree to pay more for basic necessities such as food and electricity. Third, you have to breathe dirtier air and live next to a dirtier Chesapeake Bay. And what do you get in exchange for all this pain? You get to watch a handful of companies that are already doing extremely well make a lot more money. Would you take that deal?
When it comes to exporting U.S. natural gas from a drilling process called fracking, that’s the tradeoff for the public.
Virginia-based Dominion Resources wants to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) through the Chesapeake Bay via a facility at Cove Point in southern Maryland. This project would not only damage our state’s environment, it is also part of an unwise potential national shift toward exporting natural gas, which threatens the economy and jeopardizes our country’s goal of reducing harmful greenhouse gas pollution.
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'Black liquor' a rip-off for Frederick ratepayers

The Frederick News-Post
By Mike Tidwell
There has been some confusion recently about a proposed piece of legislation in Annapolis called the “black liquor bill” (HB 1102). Tragically, this bill came one vote shy of passing, even though it would have ended a huge loophole in state law forcing Maryland’s electricity ratepayers to give millions of dollars in subsidies to out-of-state paper mills that contribute nothing to the cleaner energy that Marylanders want.
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Destroying a clean-energy law

The Virginian-Pilot
By Beth Kemler
Sneak attack, dirty trick, underhanded. Those are some of the terms used to describe Senate Republicans’ move to exploit the absence of one Democrat to pass an off-year redistricting bill – a story that became one of the hottest of this year’s Virginia General Assembly session.
Those terms also apply to one of the least covered stories of the session – a move by climate change-denying Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and electric utilities, including Dominion Power, to effectively repeal one of the state’s core clean energy laws.
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Forecast calls for pain

The Baltimore Sun
By Mike Tidwell
Not long after President Barack Obama promised to fight climate change in his inaugural address, temperatures soared to 70 last week in Baltimore — in late January. Our weather continues to be unrecognizable. Last summer was the hottest ever recorded at Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport. And across the 48 contiguous states, 2012 was the warmest on record by a huge margin. Globally, the heating trend — fueled mostly by the combustion of fossil fuels — proceeds apace. The years 2000-2009 were the warmest decade in 120,000 years.
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After Hurricane Sandy, can we finally talk about climate change?

The Baltimore Sun
By James McGarry
The candidates won’t discuss a warming planet, but Hurricane Sandy filled in the silence
Every four years, presidential candidates tell the American people that this election is a turning point for the country. This year they might actually be right. To be sure, there are always differences between candidates. On a range of issues, from health care to tax reform, voters face a real choice about two different approaches to governing.
But the most profound turning point in this election may be the fact that the neither candidate is talking about one of the most critical issues of our time. I refer to the silence around climate change.
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We Are All from New Orleans Now: Climate Change, Hurricanes and the Fate of America's Coastal Cities

The Nation
By Mike Tidwell
The presidential candidates decided not to speak about climate change. But climate change has decided to speak to them. And what does a thousand-mile-wide storm pushing 11 feet of water toward our biggest population center want to say just days before the election? It is this: We are all from New Orleans now along the U.S. east coast. Climate change – through measurable sea-level rise and a documented increase in the intensity of Atlantic storms – has now made 100 million Americans virtually as vulnerable to catastrophic impacts as the victims of Katrina seven years ago.
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A $76 million bonus for business as usual?

Richmond Times-Dispatch
By Beth Kemler
Picture this. You tell your mechanic that your car needs a new steering wheel. The car runs OK but this critical piece of equipment is broken. In turn, the mechanic hems and haws — a brand new steering wheel might be challenging to find. So you offer him a bonus — you’ll pay triple his normal rate to find the wheel you want. You sign the contract with the bonus included and shake hands. A week later, you come back and pay your bill only to discover that, instead of installing a new steering wheel, he slapped a new coat of paint on your old one. Turns out the contract you signed said that any part with paint applied in the current year counts as “new.”
Virginians face a similar quandary when it comes to the state’s electric utilities and renewable energy.
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