It may well be that the ocean acidification that wiped out $10 million worth of scallops near Parksville was a local one-time event.
It may be that Island Scallops CEO Rob Saunders doesn’t know enough to state categorically that the lower pH levels in the ocean that killed three years’ worth of his scallops, forcing him to lay off 10 staff, are part of a worldwide phenomenon. It may be that this growth in acidification, which Saunders says he hasn’t seen in his 35 years in the business, will go away and not become the new normal.
It may be that other shellfish that create jobs in B.C., like the Cortes Island oysters served to me recently in Ottawa, won’t, like Saunders’ scallops, succumb to infection due to slow-growing shells starved for carbonate.
It may be that the predicted devastating levels of ocean acidification that accompany human-generated increases in carbon dioxide are still off in the future. Or that the California drought, the worst in the state’s recorded history, estimated to cost $5 billion, that’s right now drying out the farmlands that grow half of the continent’s fruits and vegetables isn’t related to climate change.
But I doubt it.
These changes are exactly in line with predictions by an overwhelming majority of the world’s scientists who study these things. If nine out of 10 of the doctors I consulted told me I had cancer, I’d race to get treatment.
So what’s the best treatment for these nightmare scenarios going live in our economies, besides bracing ourselves for higher food prices, increased world hunger and unprecedented environmental instability?
No one wants to suck up short-term economic losses so others can capitalize on ignoring carbon emissions.
The only way out of this is to find a way to rapidly change direction without economic losses – to find the business opportunities in the transformation to a low- or zero-carbon economy.
Amazingly, proudly, B.C. has the answer: an economic transformation tool that doesn’t cripple the economy, that gives businesses the freedom and incentive to experiment, that doesn’t take additional money out of taxpayers’ pockets, that doesn’t require a big bureaucracy to administer, that harnesses the powers of the market to shift the economy and that’s overwhelmingly supported by independent economists.
It’s our five-year-old carbon tax, a price on carbon coupled with distributed benefits and matching reductions in other taxes. It raises taxes on something we don’t want (increased carbon emissions) and lowers taxes on things we do want (higher take-home income for citizens and businesses).
A 2013 Sustainable Prosperity study found that it has had no negative impact on B.C. economic performance. It saves money for businesses that choose to reduce their carbon emissions.
Tragically, it appears to be seen as an economic impediment by our provincial government, which refuses to expand it or follow through on promised increases, seduced by the short-term opportunities associated with carbon extraction, export and transportation.
Until our carbon-intensive resource industries are rapidly repositioned from a holy grail to a regrettable interim step into a low-carbon future, what we celebrate as economic growth in B.C. is actually economic suicide.
The scallops are trying to tell us something. If only we would listen. •
