Hello. Welcome. Happy belated Earth Day. Hope you had a great week.
Here’s the EcoRight news…
Quotes of the week: Not one, but two quotes, first from American Conservation Coalition founder Benji Backer to TIME magazine:
“Climate change is a decade-by-decade long issue, and it doesn’t have a political party…With innovation and bold youth action, we can solve the climate crisis across partisan boundaries.”
Then, from Alliance for Market Solutions head, Alex Flint, in response to a series of climate-focused bills introduced by the House GOP leadership.
“House Republicans began to acknowledge that they had to have substantive and politically astute positions on climate two years ago, and their thinking has evolved substantially over that time,” Flint said. “The policy options they are offering are not yet adequate.”
EcoRight Speaks, season 2, episode 13
Rocky Barker knows a thing or two about salmon conservation in Idaho.
This now-retired but still very engaged journalist used to write for the Idaho Statesman, where he spent decades reporting and elevating environmental issues important to the region. He spent 2017 writing a series on the Columbia River called Salmon and Energy. He also was the primary researcher for a series of editorials calling for the breaching of four Snake River dams to save salmon. (As you will hear in the segment, the editorials resulted in the decision to breach some 1500 dams across the U.S.)
During his 43-year career he covered environmental issues ranging from mining in Wisconsin, acid rain in Canada, rain forest protection in Hawaii, to fish and wildlife conservation in Russia’s Far East and Africa. We talk about his backstory as well as how and why the dam breaching is important to the survival of salmon. We also discuss Congressman Mike Simpson’s $33.5 billion Columbia Basin Initiative to breach four dams on the Snake River and so so much more.
We hope you enjoy the episode.
Spotlight on Spokespeople: Our Texas-based renewable energy enthusiast Sarah Styf is at it again with her latest op-ed, Reducing Plastics Takes All of Us (Real Clear Energy). “Have you ever noticed how much plastic packaging covers food products?” she writes about her family’s journey to limit plastic use. “Meat, frozen vegetables, and even pasta: wrapped in plastic. We use plastic to prepare our meals ahead of time and freeze them. Many of the home products we purchase have plastic and Styrofoam packaging to protect it from damage. While our family thought we’d been limiting our plastic consumption, we hadn’t truly realized how much plastic pervaded every aspect of our lives.”
And Florida’s Mary Anna Mancuso was also featured in Real Clear Energy with her Earth Day timed piece, COVID-19 Offers Hope for Solving Climate Change. “While solving climate change may seem daunting, there is an opportunity for our country to apply what we’ve learned during the pandemic. Swift and decisive action is possible and best achieved through bipartisan cooperation and with all levels of government support,” she writes. “Similarly to what we experience with COVID-19, climate change threatens the lives of every single person on earth. Just like early delays in mask mandates and shutdowns led to greater deaths, with each passing year that we don’t act on climate change, our planet gets warmer. In fact, since 1998, the earth is heating up twice as fast as scientists originally thought. The last time the Earth experienced cooler than average temperatures was in February 1985.”
In honor of the 51st anniversary of Earth Day… We’d like to share with you this short film made by Earth Day royalty, Tia Nelson, daughter of the movement’s founder, the late Senator Gaylord Nelson, in honor of last year’s commemoration. As this video demonstrates, the right and the left can come together to solve climate change.
Programming note: Tia Nelson is next week’s surprise podcast guest!
Also, check out this message from our Spokesperson, John Sweeney, and the youngest member of the EcoRight, his baby girl.
The future is looking bright!
REPORT: A Carbon Tax Goes Farther, Faster: A report by the Climate Leadership Council written by our EcoRight friends Greg Bertelsen and Catrina Rorke finds that “a rising carbon fee and border carbon adjustment as a central piece of U.S. climate policy will: cut carbon emissions reductions further and faster than other measures; reduce emissions of other air pollutants that are impacting local communities; introduce powerful global incentives for other countries to rapidly reduce their emissions; and create a force multiplier that makes every policy intervention and private investment toward decarbonization more effective and easier to implement.”
In a forward, former New Jersey Governor and EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman writes:
As good as it is at cutting domestic emissions, a carbon fee doesn’t just work at home. Coupled with a system of border carbon adjustments, it is the only climate tool that increases U.S. ambition while reaching beyond our borders to price the emissions of imported goods. Overseas manufacturers will face a choice: lower their emissions or lose a piece of the world’s largest market. By leveraging the power of the U.S. consumer, America can give a muchneeded jolt to global climate efforts, encouraging other countries to switch to clean energy.
The Climate Leadership Council is an international research and advocacy organization founded in collaboration with a who’s who of business, opinion and environmental leaders to promote a carbon dividends framework as the most cost-effective, equitable and politically-viable climate solution.
Friends, that’s it for me this week. You’ll see my words next Friday!