Environmentalism Places a Burden on the Poor

Frequent commenter and colleague Tim Kingston sent me this piece about the burden that environmentalism places on the poor and asks: Are things really this bad in CA?

I respond:

Of course, a tax on our consumption of energy hits the poor hardest.  My good friend Tim, if the cost you pay for energy rose 20% next month you might barely notice, but that’s not the case for the majority of humankind.  And this is essentially what brings a halt to any progress that could be made by the international meetings (COP – Conference of Parties) that convene every six months to discuss our energy policy vis-a-vis climate change.  They are at a stand-still.  To oversimplify (only slightly): The rich countries refuse to do anything, and the poor countries can’t afford to do anything. 

If there were a politically feasible way to tax the enormous wealth being created by the fossil-fuel energy industry, and distribute those funds back into mitigating the damage being done to our lungs and our environment, I’d vote for it in a second.   But such mechanisms don’t exist now, nor are they likely to in the future.