Climate change on labor’s radar
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
It’s been 26 years since NASA sci-
entist James Hansen told the U.S. Sen-
ate that human use of fossil fuels is re-
sponsible for an increase of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere that are caus-
ing global warming. It’s been 17 years
since three dozen countries (but not the
United States) agreed in the Kyoto Pro-
tocol to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
It’s been eight years since Al Gore re-
leased the climate change documentary
Inconvenient Truth. And during that
time, global atmospheric concentration
of carbon dioxide has risen — from
350 parts per million to 363, 385, and
this year, 400 parts per million — a
level not seen in 800,000 years.
On Sept. 21, as many as 400,000
people took part in People’s Climate
March in New York City to demand ac-
tion be taken now to slow and reverse
global warming. And the big event was
mirrored by 2,600 other events around
the world, including a rally and march
of several thousand in Portland at Tom
McCall Waterfront Park.
In New York City, labor unionists
took up several city blocks. In Portland,
the labor presence was pretty small:
Just two or three banners, and not more
than 20 participants. But attendees did
hear from the state’s top labor union of-
ficer — Oregon AFL-CIO President
Tom Chamberlain — who made a call
for unity.
“There are those who want to force
workers to choose between good jobs
and the environment, and there are
those who will support environmental
change only if done as cheap as possi-
ble at the expense of workers,” Cham-
berlain said. “Those are false observa-
tions and false choices.”
Chamberlain followed, and echoed,
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, who
called global climate change the most
serious challenge and greatest threat
facing our children and our grandchil-
dren: “This is not a choice between the
environment and the economy. It is the
simple statement that the environment
is not a resource to be exploited. In fact
the environment is the foundation of
our economy.”
But if that’s so, serious measures are
going to have to be deployed. Climate
change has already begun to affect the
state, national, and global economy. In
Oregon, California winemakers are
buying up Willamette Valley vineyards,
driven north by worsening drought. In-
sect pests are also moving north, and
dry forests have made large-scale an-
nual wildfires the new normal.
To address global warming, envi-
ronmental groups — with labor at the
table — are discussing the pros and
cons of campaigning for a carbon tax
in the 2015 Oregon Legislature. The
Canadian province of British Colum-
bia has implemented a carbon tax,
while the state of California has begun
a “cap-and-trade” system of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions (an im-
proved version of the system imple-
mented in Europe). In the state of
Washington, Governor Jay Inslee has
formed a Carbon Emission Reduction
Task Force that is studying both op-
tions. Oregon legislators considered a
cap-and-trade bill in 2009, but it didn’t
have enough support to become law.
But in 2013, a bill passed by the
Oregon Legislature commissioned an
in-depth study of the impacts of a car-
bon tax. That report is due this Novem-
ber. If Oregon legislators take up a car-
bon tax proposal, it could have
far-reaching local benefits as well as
costs. Putting a price on carbon would
stimulate conservation. And a prelimi-
nary version of the report indicates that
a tax of $60 per ton of carbon emission
would generate as much as $2 billion a
year in revenue. The Oregon Constitu-
tion says any tax on motor vehicle fuel
has to go for road construction and
The science is in: It’s getting hotter. The only question is what to do about it.
At the Sept. 21 People’s Climate March in Portland, supporters demand
action while marching along Tom McCall Waterfront Park.
maintenance, so any portion of a car-
bon tax that affected gasoline could
generate a boom in highway and road
work, or even resuscitate scrapped
plans for a new transit-friendly I-5
bridge over the Columbia River.
2014
Endorsements
U.S. HOUSE
CLARK COUNTY
3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT:
Commissioner Dist 1:
B OB D INGETHAL
C RAIG P RIDEMORE
STATE SUPREME COURT
Prosecuting Attorney:
T ONY G OLIK
Pos. 1 — M ARY Y U
Pos. 3 — M ARY F AIRHURST
Pos. 4 — C HARLES J OHNSON
Pos. 9 — D EBRA S TEPHENS
Public Utilities Commissioner, #3:
B YRON H ANKE
County Clerk:
D EANNA P AULI -H AMMOND
LEGISLATURE
County Sherriff:
17TH DISTRICT:
C HUCK A TKINS
House #1: M ONICA S TONIER
Superior Court Judge:
18TH DISTRICT:
House #2:
B ERNARD V ELJACIC
House #1: M IKE B RIGGS
Clark County
Home Rule Charter
County Treasurer:
M AUREEN W INNINGHAM
YES
D OUG L ASHER
BALLOT MEASURES
49TH DISTRICT:
House #1: S HARON W YLIE
House #2: J IM M OELLER
Yes on Initiative 1351: Reducing class sizes so that
students of all ages and backgrounds, from all parts of
our state, have the opportunity to learn and succeed in
uncrowded classrooms.
(Paid for and authorized by the Southwest Washington Central Labor Council.)
PAGE 16
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
OCTOBER 3, 2014