BMOC During CCL At UAA

Big Moose On Campus

Is that enough acronym for you in the title?

The Anchorage chapter of  Citizens Climate Lobby's (CCL) monthly meeting is at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) campus.  During Saturday's meeting, at the end of the telephone link to all the other chapters, a moose wandered in our direction from the Wendy Williams auditorium where the Top of the World Cheer and Dance championships were taking place. 

We'd just heard from Keya Chatterjee, executive director of the US Climate Action Network.  The Network has about 140 members - groups around the US focused on one aspect of climate change or another. 

What I keep discovering, in  various arenas, is the vast number of people who are working hard to make the world a better place in any number of ways.  While the media focus on politicians, major events, and photogenic disasters, there are millions of people quietly working with little or no media attention to what they are doing. 

The Network's job is to help the many groups working on climate issues to be aware of each other so they can join forces when they have overlapping projects and goals.  CCL's main goal is to get a revenue neutral carbon fee with the proceeds returning back to citizens (sort of like the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend.)  The idea, as I understand it, is to try to tax producers of carbon based fuels and products whose side effects (externalities) are hugely damaging our planet's ability to sustain itself.   The dividend would go back to consumers.  So the increase in carbon products will be offset by the dividend, and alternative energy sources will be more cost competitive. 

This is a market-based solution which businesses prefer to government regulation, because it gives them more freedom.  This approach is gaining ground quickly with conservatives as well as liberals supporting it. 

Stemming from her work on climate change and having a child, Keya has written a book called The Zero Footprint Baby:  How to Save the Planet While Raising a Healthy Baby.