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After reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and The Four-Way Test, Keith Olson led us in prayer. President Elect Dan Johnson presided and he called upon Brad Hoganson to introduce our Student Guests from Hillcrest. Elise Wutka from East Hartland, Connecticut and Lydia Juhl from Fergus Falls (parents are John and Tammy) were introduced as the valedictorian and salutatorian respectively of this year's graduating class. Elise's plans next year are to attend Liberty University in Virginia while Lydia is planning on Alex Tech School. Keith Olson then introduced our Athletes of the Week, Aleksander Frustol and Gabe Preston, both from Fergus Falls; Aleksander's parents are Oddvar and Lynn while Gabe's parents are Gregg and Marie. Both were recognized for their contributions to Hillcrest's boys basketball team. Tim Hunt led off the brags and fines, reporting his and Desta's safe return from a 9,900 mile road trip around the United States visiting family and friends. Wally Cole contributed $1.00 for not responding to last week's challenge posed by this writer and Dave Peters paid to promote a presentation at OLV that evening. Stan Carignan unload some money to report he was going kite boarding later in the day and Buzz Lundeen reported on upcoming knee replacement surgery. Stan then introduced Beth Monke and Patty Shol who were present to talk about the Citizens' Climate Lobby. Also joining them was Dee Johnson, a recent volunteer to the group. Beth talked about going to Holden Village in 2006 while Patty shared that her commitment to the cause emanated from a viewing of the documentary "Before The Flood." It was pointed out that there is a Rotary Action Group that is working in this area and that one of the Objects of Rotary, to foster the advancement of international understanding, goodwill and peace, speaks to why Rotarians should be involved in the effort to address climate change. While the U.S. only has eight percent (8%) of the world's population it produces one-fourth (25%) of carbon monoxide emissions worldwide. Seventy percent (70%) of Americans (and 97% of scientists polled) believe climate change is real but far fewer believe they are going to be personally impacted by it. To suggest otherwise, it was pointed out that seven of the ten largest beer brewers in the world acknowledge that climate change has affected their business, so for all beer (as well as coffee) drinkers, it should mean something; historically one-third to one-half of hops produced in the world were grown in the northwest United States, but that has decreased as temperatures have increased, with corn and soybeans taking over. The point made was that the earth is warming because of fossil fuels. Since 1950, carbon monoxide in the air has grown to 400 parts per million -- a level never experienced before. In the 1980's, there were 250 extreme weather events annually, while in the last few years that number has grown to 600 to 700 a year. Twenty of the world's warmest years have been in the last twenty-two, and a global organization predicts that to avoid catastrophe we have twelve years to cut global emissions by 50%. The Citizens' Climate Lobby has been advocating for legislation that would tax carbon emissions and return a dividend to U.S. taxpayers. Canada has recently passed such legislation and it is believed a similar law here would be effective to reduce the consequences of climate change if adopted in the United States by 2021. The bill in the U.S. House of Representatives is designated as H.R. 763 this new legislative session. The tax would start out at $15 per metric ton of carbon monoxide emissions, with the fee increasing annually, thereby encouraging everyone to reduce their carbon footprint. One study that has been done indicated that the approach being advocated would actually be good for our economy. To avoid the political fall-out associated with suggesting the money go to the government, thereby resulting in even bigger government, the Citizens' Climate Lobby recommends that all revenue raised be returned to the people. One of our members took issue with this suggestion, but when dealing with such a controversial subject it is not surprising there were many different views held by those at our meeting. More information on the Citizens' Climate Lobby is available at energyinnovationact.org. |
