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Con: Americans must make painful sacrifices now to stop Earth’s rush to climate Armageddon

WASHINGTON — EDITOR’S NOTE: The writer is addressing the question, Is President Obama’s cap-and-trade plan for carbon emissions to reduce global warming too costly and inefficient?

On the evening of March 28, starting from New Zealand’s remote Chatham Islands on the International Dateline in the Pacific and ending with the Hawaiian Islands, the planet marked “Earth Hour.” Lights were turned out at the Sydney Opera House, Big Ben the Pyramids of Giza, the Eiffel Tower, and the Empire State Building in a campaign designed to bring international public attention to the ravages of global climate change.

Noble gestures all, but it will take much more than a publicity gimmick to reverse course on rapidly advancing climate change. In fact, it is almost too late to reverse a course that threatens to plunge the world into a condition red of perpetual extreme weather conditions.

Without an abrupt about face, scientists warn that we can expect coastal inundation caused by rising sea levels, the destruction of millions of acres of arable farmland, extinction of thousands of species and a massive human death toll.

At a time when the United States is faced with an anemic economy, a carbon cap-and-trade system is sorely needed to mitigate the devastating effects of climate change resulting from industrial and vehicle pollution.

Those companies that reduce their carbon-dioxide emissions below government-mandated caps will be able to sell or trade carbon credits to those companies that fail to achieve their goals.

The thinking is that companies that use their carbon credits to invest in green technology, thus creating “green collar” jobs during the economic recession and high unemployment, can make a profit for themselves while creating new markets and jobs. There may be a better way to create a green economy while turning a profit, but an effective alternative has not yet been developed that satisfies the needs of environmentalists and industry.

President Obama’s overall goal is to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. It is an ambitious goal and one that cannot be achieved without the market incentive of cap and trade.

Obama’s proposed cap-and-trade plan in his first budget foresees $650 billion in revenues for the cash-strapped federal government between 2012 and 2019. Even though the carbon cap-and-trade system would generate much-needed revenues for the federal government, the plan is vigorously opposed by congressional representatives from Big Oil and Big Coal states such as Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The cap-and-trade proposal is merely bringing the federal government into line with measures already taken by California, New York and few other pioneering states to curb greenhouse gas emissions. California’s enterprising climate change programs already have sparked creation of a new “green economy,” and Obama obviously sees the California model as one way to jump-start the national economy from its present stall.

In addition to the cap-and-trade system, Obama set aside funds for development of clean energy programs in his American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Along with putting teeth back into the Clean Air Act, Obama hopes to present a new American global commitment to combat climate change at this December’s U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen.

It is not an easy task for our new president. Not only does he face opposition from congressional shills for Big Business, but he also must overcome skepticism of the world’s two most populous nations, China and India.

To set the stage for successful action at Copenhagen, President Obama is to host a climate change conference in Washington later this month. By seeking a broad new mandate for carbon cap-and-trade, green economy investments and tougher regulations for clean air, the White House hopes to make dealing with global climate change more than a mere token annual gesture to turn off the planet’s lights for an hour every March.

All thoughtful Americans should wish him Godspeed.

Wayne Madsen is a contributing writer to the progressive Online Journal (www.onlinejournal.com). Readers may write to him c/o National Press Club, Front Desk, 529 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20045.