9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
♪[ominous music]♪

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Leonardo DiCaprio) Ancient life on earth.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Over millions of years [br]plants and animals lived and died.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That decomposed life sunk[br]deep into the ground, and as a result,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
an ancient menace was created...[br]fossil fuels.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Black oil, coal, and gas, have created [br]modern society as we know it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This ancient sunlight unleashed[br]global industrial power on a scale

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
never before witnessed [br]in the history of the planet.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But when burnt into the atmosphere, [br]carbon causes climate change.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
97% of climate scientists [br]agree that climate change

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is happening now [br]and is caused by human activity.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
However, the fossil fuel industry continues[br]to pull that carbon out of the ground.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They drill, they extract, making trillions of dollars.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They frack, they mine, earning astronomical profits.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We need to keep this carbon in the ground.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In order to prevent a catastrophic [br]warming of the planet

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by 2 degrees Celsius, we cannot burn[br]more than 500 gigatons

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of carbon into the atmosphere.[br]But the fossil fuel industry has access

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to five times more than that.[br]Almost 2800 gigatons of carbon pollution

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is ready to be pulled out of the ground,[br]sold, and burned.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We must fight to keep this carbon [br]in the ground, and it is possible.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> People are ready for conversation.[br]They're ready to understand

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that carbon pollution[br]is causing this challenge,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and that there is a simple solution...

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Put a price on carbon pollution.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In the United States we spend[br]$110 billion federal dollars

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
on climate change events. [br]That's about $300 a person in tax dollars.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> But we certainly need a price [br]on carbon pollution.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Right now it's a free good and we're using[br]the atmosphere as a sewer, and that has

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
a real cost. And that cost should be[br]reflected in the cost of carbon pollution.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> In the '50s in London,[br]based on the industrial revolution,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
there was so much pollution, [br]as you see in Beijing and around

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
China today, that you actually couldn't [br]see six straight feet in front of you.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They put a price on pollution,[br]and it changed.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> You have to put a price on carbon, [br]and that can either happen

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by carbon trading or through a carbon tax.[br]There's a moral imperative there,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but there's also a business imperative.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> Senator Boxer and I have [br]introduced legislation to do just that.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We are going to do it in a way[br]that impacts fewer than 3,000

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of the most significant fossil fuel [br]polluters in the country.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And the reason you do it, is people should

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
not have the " freedom" [br]to destroy the planet.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They cannot continue to be able[br]to do that with impunity

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to the tune now of a trillion dollars[br]a year. We need to redirect these

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
subsidies that encourage innovation. [br]That's what we need in the world.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But the biggest barrier is money [br]from fossil industries that want to defend

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
their market share, and which I consider[br]the industries' walking butt. They've got

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
tremendous assets underground [br]that they want to be able to mine.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Those are trillions of dollars of assets [br]that the fossil energy companies used

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to evaluate their worth in the stock[br]market. And the fact that we want

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to strand them, to leave them[br]underground, is not going over real well

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in those industries. But in fact,[br]if we wanted to head off the worst

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
uncontrollable damages from[br]climate change, that's what we have to do.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thom Hartmann: Finland and the[br]Netherlands implemented a carbon tax

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
back in 1990. Both, putting a price tag[br]on each ton of CO2 poison.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> In the beginning of the '90s [br]there was a deep understanding

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that we should do something. [br]We think that the Finnish economy

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
should be based on sustainable energy[br]in order to make our society competitive

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and in order to save our planet,[br]which is, of course, the main target.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thom Hartmann : Since then, several other[br]nations have created their own versions,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
including Norway, Costa Rica,[br]and the United Kingdom.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Ireland passed a carbon tax in 2010.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> It was very simple to introduce. [br]When they see a carbon tax in place,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
people know that they can invest[br]in alternatives that actually

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
cut out the use of fossil fuel.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It starts to have that effect improving[br]energy efficiency in your homes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and improving industries' [br]energy efficiency.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And what we've seen in the last [br]5 years is we doubled amount

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of renewable energy supplies, [br]so the benefit for the consumer

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is if through those signals you can[br]cut out the wasteful use of energy,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
then everyone is saving money [br]and it more than covers the cost

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of the carbon tax in the first place.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Thom Hartmann: In Australia, renewables[br]like wind are now cheaper

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
than fossil fuels like coal. Recently[br]China put a price on carbon

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in over 7 regions and will add more.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Now it's up to the United States, [br]where there's good news at a local level.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In 2007, Boulder, Colorado[br]passed a carbon tax

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
charging $13 for every metric ton of CO2.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> The carbon tax was generated [br]and voted into place by Boulder voters.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So it's a surcharge on electricity consumption and it's applied to residential,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
commercial, and industrial customers here in Boulder.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The effect has been really tremendous.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So once the carbon tax went into place,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it has generated about[br]$1.8 million a year.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What's been extraordinary is that we've[br]been able to really turn the curve,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
so to speak, on our emissions [br]just on demand side alone.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> We actually proposed that every single[br]dollar go back to American households.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Carbon tax is the right way to go and is[br]actually the conservative answer

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to global warming.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> Finally we're at the point where wind[br]power and solar are coming down in price

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in a quarter of the United States. [br]Solar voltaics are already cost effective.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Last year more wind power was [br]added than natural gas power.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And this is true around the world. [br]We have the technologies at hand.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We are ready now to really [br]ramp up deployment.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> The figures for Ireland I think [br]show an example that you can actually

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
start cutting out the carbon [br]and your economy still holds up.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The world didn't come to an end. [br]I think it's a lesson

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for the rest of the world.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> We've been disappointed by the[br]national policymakers who haven't been

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
able to resolve their differences about [br]this and time is growing very, very short.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
President Obama is the last president[br]with a chance to confront this problem

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in a way that may head off[br]the worst of the damage.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> But given the severity of the problem[br]right now, we're not moving fast enough.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We're looking at a fight [br]to save this planet.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And we have got to be bold [br]and we have got to be aggressive.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
>> If it's not going to happen [br]at the federal level or the state level,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we in the communities,[br]where the innovation occurs,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where we're gonna be on the front lines [br]of the impact of climate change,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we need to take it in our own hands

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and make the changes that we need to see.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(Leonardo DiCaprio) If national [br]governments won't take action,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
your community can.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We no longer need the dead economy

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
of the fossil fuel industry.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We can move our economy town by town,[br]state by state to renewable energy

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and a sustainable future.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
To learn more and join the movement,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
go to greenworldrising.og.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
♪(tranquil mid tempo orchestral music)♪

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000