[GWSG] Corp. action; CCS req.?; carbon tax?; reef overview; Japan as solar market; social cost of C up

[Tilley, Al]

1.  If corporations wish really to be part of the solution, they, like Nike and Starbucks, need to press for systemic changes which lead toward full transition to renewable energy soon.  Greenwash can be used to maintain the status quo.   http://grist.org/climate-energy/corporate-sustainability-is-not-sustainable/?utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&sub_email=atilley@unf.edu

2.  A requirement that fossil fuel power producers sequester an increasing percentage of the carbon they produce would cut emissions and help return some of the externalized costs to the corporations now profiting.  The move would be legislatively (though not politically) simple.  It would drastically improve the economics of a transition to renewable energy, which would be that much more comparatively cheap.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/05/bury-co2-problem-capture-store-carbon  Since we do not yet know how to sequester carbon except in special situations, the effect would be to ban much current carbon production.  It would likely produce a transition faster than a carbon tax.

3.  More than 40 countries have now placed, or are placing, a price on carbon.   Exxon’s Rex Tillerson (“What good is it to save the planet if humanity suffers?”) even likes the idea, so long as Exxon Mobil gets the revenues, heaven forbid.   http://grist.org/news/carbon-pricing-is-catching-on-around-the-globe-just-not-in-washington-d-c/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed  A reflection on Tillerson’s opinion of rescuing the earth:  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/05/30/2076751/exxon-ceo-what-good-is-it-to-save-the-planet-if-humanity-suffers/   Tillerson’s full quotation: http://www.masterresource.org/2013/06/exxon-mobil-trumps-alarmists/   A new ad campaign against a carbon tax in the US indicates that fossil fuel interests are worried about the prospect of a carbon tax (in spite of President Obama’s opposition to the idea).  Good.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/06/americans-for-prosperity-carbon-tax

4.  Scientific American surveys the decline of reefs worldwide from the effects of climate disruption.  http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/expeditions/2013/06/05/the-effects-of-climate-change-on-coral-reef-health/

5.  Japan is set to become the world’s largest solar power market in 2013.  http://cleantechnica.com/2013/06/04/japanese-solar-industry-soaring/

6.  The federal government just raised the estimated social cost of emitting carbon by 60%.  One effect is to raise the amount of carbon mitigation which can be justified.   http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/06/americans-for-prosperity-carbon-tax
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