children, Ray, and our children’s children. And the way I see it, our generation is only living as good as it does because no one has paid yet. We haven’t taken any of the pain. And our parents didn’t, and our grandparents didn’t, but it’s no point complaining to them because they’re not here anymore. They figured we could keep growing our economies at the fastest pace and somehow with a nip here and a tuck there the environment would be okay and we could have the best of both worlds. Trading carbon credits would solve the problem. Well, you know what? It just made a bunch of traders rich. Or technology would do it for us. Well, plenty of time and money was spent on technology to get hold of fossil fuels that previously we couldn’t even access. Twenty, thirty years ago we should have started taxing fossil fuels at the true cost of the damage they do, like we’d do for any other commodity that causes public damage. We should have taken that money—and it would have been a huge amount of money—and put it right into research for the technologies that would replace those fuels.”
“Who?” said Ray. “Government?”
“Why not? Government funds basic health research, and we fund it out of taxes. Isn’t this just as important? Sure, at some point, you commercialize it. But if you’ve got a long-term crisis, and the market isn’t dealing with it because market incentives are focused on the short term, it’s the role of government to make sure the research gets done. That’s exactly what happens in health. Now, if we’d had that money and been putting it into research for the last thirty years, wouldn’t we have come up with solutions to replace fossil fuels? You bet we would. But we didn’t do that. We didn’t make fossil fuels pay their true cost because we were too damn scared it would take a little off our economic growth. And every time we had a slowdown, our fine words about saving the planet went right out the window and all we cared about wa s getting growth up again, whatever it took. Sure, we had plans. Too many of them. Obama’s plan, Currie’s plan. Some of them were even good plans, or would have been if we’d carried them through. The problem wasn’t not having enough plans, it was actually doing what we planned to do. Always some reason, some special interest group, some industry that needed an exemption. And we gave in to them, over and over and over. Come on, Ray. How much legislation, how many emissions targets have you and I seen go by the wayside because it turned out to be just too damn painful to stick to them and too damn easy to convince ourselves that the market or technology or some other thing would magically solve everything for us? And you want to know something—why not? Why should we have taken any pain, why should anyone, when you could be absolutely sure that no other government in the world was going to live up to the cuts they’d committed to make—not if it meant sacrificing even a single percentage point of growth—-and there was no mechanism to make them do it? That’s how it’s been. We haven’t done what we had to do, what we said we’d do. So for a start, we’re better off now than we have a right to be. And now the bill for the cost is here. It didn’t go away just because we ignored it. Someone’s got to pay.” Joe raised his hands. “It’s us. The buck stops here. It’s got to. We don’t pay the bill, it’s Amy, and it’s Greg, and it’s June and it’s Penny who are going to pay. And the bill will keep getting bigger. And you know what? Things happen when you don’t pay the bill. You go back to France in 1789. Hell, you don’t have to go to France. Look at 1776.”
Ray smiled. “You’re saying we’re going to have a revolution?”
“I’m asking you. I’m saying you’ve got ten million people suddenly dispossessed, in poverty, and what are they going to do? Now make that twenty million. Make it forty. I’m
“Who?” said Ray. “Government?”
“Why not? Government funds basic health research, and we fund it out of taxes. Isn’t this just as important? Sure, at some point, you commercialize it. But if you’ve got a long-term crisis, and the market isn’t dealing with it because market incentives are focused on the short term, it’s the role of government to make sure the research gets done. That’s exactly what happens in health. Now, if we’d had that money and been putting it into research for the last thirty years, wouldn’t we have come up with solutions to replace fossil fuels? You bet we would. But we didn’t do that. We didn’t make fossil fuels pay their true cost because we were too damn scared it would take a little off our economic growth. And every time we had a slowdown, our fine words about saving the planet went right out the window and all we cared about wa s getting growth up again, whatever it took. Sure, we had plans. Too many of them. Obama’s plan, Currie’s plan. Some of them were even good plans, or would have been if we’d carried them through. The problem wasn’t not having enough plans, it was actually doing what we planned to do. Always some reason, some special interest group, some industry that needed an exemption. And we gave in to them, over and over and over. Come on, Ray. How much legislation, how many emissions targets have you and I seen go by the wayside because it turned out to be just too damn painful to stick to them and too damn easy to convince ourselves that the market or technology or some other thing would magically solve everything for us? And you want to know something—why not? Why should we have taken any pain, why should anyone, when you could be absolutely sure that no other government in the world was going to live up to the cuts they’d committed to make—not if it meant sacrificing even a single percentage point of growth—-and there was no mechanism to make them do it? That’s how it’s been. We haven’t done what we had to do, what we said we’d do. So for a start, we’re better off now than we have a right to be. And now the bill for the cost is here. It didn’t go away just because we ignored it. Someone’s got to pay.” Joe raised his hands. “It’s us. The buck stops here. It’s got to. We don’t pay the bill, it’s Amy, and it’s Greg, and it’s June and it’s Penny who are going to pay. And the bill will keep getting bigger. And you know what? Things happen when you don’t pay the bill. You go back to France in 1789. Hell, you don’t have to go to France. Look at 1776.”
Ray smiled. “You’re saying we’re going to have a revolution?”
“I’m asking you. I’m saying you’ve got ten million people suddenly dispossessed, in poverty, and what are they going to do? Now make that twenty million. Make it forty. I’m
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