When I was a kid, we were strongly cautioned against swimming in the North Saskatchewan River because we could be exposed to typhoid or hepatitis and various chemicals. In those days people, municipalities, and companies freely dumped waste into the river, which was treated like a sewer. Today the river is far cleaner, a place where people swim and boat and fish through the summer. People don’t pour their used oil into our river, nor does the city dump raw sewage into it. We all agree that investigations, fines, and penalties are in order for that sort of behaviour.
Unfortunately, we don’t yet treat the air with the same respect we treat the water. Every time we drive our cars, we dump waste from the burning fuel into the air. Every coal-fired power plant, every factory, almost every building treats the atmosphere like a sewer. One solution is to start charging a cost for dumping into the atmosphere. This government, to its credit, has begun charging what it calls a levy for major carbon emitters. A variation on this is the so-called carbon tax, which has been the subject of heated debate and opposition.
I think we need to change our language around the carbon levies and carbon taxes. On these issues, language is very important. Let’s begin by calling these things what they are: they are not a tax or a levy, they are dumping fees. If you are going to dump carbon into the atmosphere, then should pay a dumping fee, just as you would for dumping a load of trash at the landfill, and just as you would pay a fine for pouring your oil change down the sewer or tossing you household trash in the ditch.
I for one don’t like the idea of carbon taxes or carbon levies, but I can accept a carbon dumping fee. Let’s start treating the atmosphere with the same care we treat our rivers and lakes.
