October 10, 2010

One Simple Act

The Government of Alberta is currently running a campaign telling us that simple acts added up together can have a big impact on the environment. Don't believe it.

Simple acts like installing energy-efficient lights, planting trees, taking shorter showers, repairing leaky taps, and such are all worth doing, but simple acts like these will not overcome the damage we are doing to the environment. No matter how many of us adopt these practices.

To bring about any kind of improvement, we have to put a price on carbon—a carbon tax, a cap and trade or some combination of the two. This is absolutely essential, if only to pay for what burning fossil fuels is doing to our health, the environment and the climate. This cost is not factored into the price we pay for these fuels, and that is an injustice that the “free” market and governments around the world continue to ignore.

So here’s my suggestion. Log on to onesimpleact.alberta.ca and follow the links to the One Simple Act page. Go directly to section 2 and write in your pledge to demonstrate support for a price on carbon.

If enough of us made this our simple act, then we'd see an impact on environment.

No comments: