OP-ED by Marshall - Copenhagen meltdown may prove best for planet

Tennessee Voices

The failure to reach a binding agreement at the climate change conference in Copenhagen elicited much hand-wringing and soul-searching — and more than a little finger-pointing — but I'm glad it happened.

Coming from a guy who's presented the Al Gore slide show on global warming 43 times, that might seem like a shocking response. But here's why the meltdown in Copenhagen might actually be good news for the planet.

From the outset, any agreement reached at the conference was a recipe for future catastrophe. The reductions in carbon dioxide emissions that were proposed fell far short of what's needed to keep global temperatures in check, or even below the 2 degrees Celsius increase that most nations have agreed to. Had such an agreement been signed, leaders would have congratulated each other and the public would have been deluded into believing that something meaningful was accomplished. Problem solved! No need to worry about climate change any more.

But there were some who knew better.

Dr. James Hansen, whose prophecies on climate change have proven correct since 1988, said prior to the conference, "I would rather it not happen if people accept that as being the right track, because it's a disaster track."

Well, we didn't have to wait long for that prediction to bear out. The Guardian newspaper reported a confidential United Nations analysis stating that current pledges to reduce greenhouse gases would lead to a temperature increase of 3 degrees Celsius. Such an increase would put Bangladesh and the Netherlands under the sea, wipe out the glaciers that supply water for a billion people and kill off half the species on the planet.

What policy-makers fail to grasp is that the Earth's climate won't negotiate with us. Nature has drawn a line, and we've already crossed it. Weaning America and the rest of the world off carbon-based energy will be a challenge, but it can also be an opportunity. By bringing clean energy up to the necessary scale, we can create the jobs and build the industries that will drive our economy in the 21st century.

We can transition quickly to carbonless energy — without crippling our economy — by placing an escalating fee on carbon and returning the revenue to all households equally. The carbon fee makes clean energy competitive with fossil fuels, and the rebated revenue allows people to pay higher energy bills without taking a hit economically. Sen. Bob Corker says it's an approach that "always seemed like the more intelligent thing to do."

Should the Tennessee Republican get behind legislation for a carbon fee and dividend, we could start to look at climate change solutions in the kind of bipartisan atmosphere that's needed to heal the planet's atmosphere.

It's easy to blame politicians for inaction in Copenhagen, but the onus really falls on us, as citizens, to educate ourselves and communicate our concerns with elected officials. Once we do this, we'll stop asking what the politics will allow on climate change and start asking what the Earth will allow, because it's cutting no deals.