FORKS — A University of Washington professor will speak about how to limit carbon emissions and discuss Initiative 732 during an Evening Talk presentation at 7 p.m. Friday.
The presentation will be in the Hemlock Forest Room at the Olympic Natural Resources Center, 1455 S. Forks Ave. Refreshments will be served and a potluck of desserts is encouraged.
Bruce Lippke, professor emeritus of the School of Environmental and Forest Science of the University of Washington, will speak about how to keep fossil emissions out of the atmosphere and potential policy impacts on carbon emissions.
He will discuss Initiative 732, a measure to tax fossil carbon emissions that is on the Nov. 8 ballot, in relation to its potential to have the state become a global leader in developing environmental enhancing polices, said Frank Hanson of the center.
Lippke’s position is that technologies exist to remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere but most policies fail to use them and cause more harm than good.
Current carbon cap and trade policies, which promote paying tree farmers not to harvest trees for the temporary benefit of a little more growth before maturity, are misguided, he said.
Instead, he is convinced that to reduce carbon accumulations in the atmosphere, farmers should be encouraged to harvest trees before growth slows down and have them processed into structural products that are used instead of fossil intensive products.
Unlike carbon-offset trades, a tax on fossil carbon emissions would increase the price of all products proportional to their fossils emissions, which provides a market advantage for carbon negative alternatives, Lippke said.
“Believe it or not that a tax can be good, Professor Lippke is certain that a tax on fossil fuels will promote better use of wood contributing to more jobs and a better economy in rural timber communities,” Hanson said.
Lippke is the former director of the University of Washington’s Rural Technology Initiative, a center focused on assisting small forest land owners with new research findings and changing environmental regulation.
He also is past president emeritus of the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials, which analyzes environmental impacts from using wood.
Evening Talks at ONRC is funded through the Rosmond Forestry Education Fund, an endowment that honors the contributions of Fred Rosmond and his family to forestry, and the Forks community.
For more information, contact Hanson at 360-374-4556 or fsh2@uw.edu.
