Editor:
Carbon powers our lives. It is also unravelling them. It’s time that each one of us be accountable for how we contribute to this existential problem. A carbon tax is no silver-bullet solution but if it’s ambitious and fair, we’d be wise to embrace it now, while it still has the ability to assist us in changing the lethal direction we’re heading in.
Tax is the service charge we pay for living in a democracy. Challenge your friends and family when they whine about it. It is how we pay for stuff that we all benefit from. And if we pay more for something because of the dangerous climate-altering gases it produces, directly or indirectly, our behaviours change – a simple, elegant cause and effect.
The boomers, my generation, have had it pretty good overall. Lucky for us, most of us have not lived with the terror and deprivation of war – and the sacrifice which this requires. We’re out of practice when it comes to living with less, doing without, sharing our stuff, or making financial sacrifices when they are needed. But now it’s way time. And we better not whinge or make excuses or point fingers.
When I hear opposition to the federal carbon tax I am embarrassed, in large measure because it seems to be coming predominantly from the most “entitled” generation in history – us boomers, many of whose attitudes have been shaped by easy street living, self-interest, tax tantrums and political dogma. As a generation that has been given so much, we so need to get over ourselves, embrace the big picture and support the carbon tax. Not convinced? Then do it for your children and grandchildren.
Tim Turner, Gibsons
