Northampton Friends Meeting
Voluntary Carbon Tax Witness
September 2014
Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places,
islands, nations wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach
among all sorts of people.
George Fox 1656
Climate change threatens life on our planet.
Action is needed now. There is broad agreement that taxing carbon use is one of
the most effective ways to address the threat of climate change. Until our
governments act, how can we witness to the urgency of the situation? Can we be
patterns and examples?
�
By calculating and paying a voluntary carbon
tax, individuals can choose to give a selected percentage of one or more of
their personal carbon-use expenditures to some endeavor that addresses climate
change. �Last year, fourteen Mount Toby
Friends were led to join together in a voluntary carbon tax witness (VCTW), and
Mount Toby Friends Meeting agreed to support the witness.� Since then, other monthly meetings in
Connecticut Valley Quarterly Meeting, including Storrs and Hartford, have
started their own voluntary carbon tax witness programs.�� During several 9:30 hour sessions in
2013-2014, Northampton Friends discussed possibilities for further action on
climate change, including voluntary carbon tax witness.
Northampton
Friends Meeting supports those who are led to voluntary carbon tax witness. The
Meeting affirms this witness as ministry and provides a means for individuals
to participate. All members and attenders of Northampton Friends Meeting are
welcome to join in this witness. The plan is to send funds collected from
participants to organizations that share Quaker values and that are working to
reduce further climate change, to mitigate disasters caused by climate change,
and/or to mobilize public support for either or both of these.
Those who wish to participate in this witness
will complete a pledge form. Participants pledge a percentage of the cost, or
an amount per unit, of gasoline, electricity, home heating, other
transportation uses, and nonlocal and/or processed food. Each person decides
his or her own level of carbon tax (e.g. .01%, 1%, 10%, etc.)� on one or more of
these uses. The amount of each pledge is confidential. (A calculator which can
be used to experiment with values for some of these forms of carbon use is
available online http://voluntarycarbontax.org/gascalc/gascalc.html)
On a quarterly basis, each participant will
calculate the amount of his or her pledge and write a check to Northampton
Friends Meeting for that amount, with �carbon tax� on the memo line.
A
designated Friend (VCTW fund steward) will be responsible for
� Collecting pledge
forms,
� Accepting quarterly
checks (and reminding Friends when necessary),
� Keeping track of the
total contributed,
� Giving the bundled
checks to the treasurer for deposit into a new Voluntary Carbon Tax Witness
Fund,
� Inviting all the
participants to discern how the total collected will be disbursed,
� Reporting to the
Treasurer and to Meeting for Worship for Business, and
� Providing the
Treasurer with contact information for the organizations chosen.
After
approval, the Treasurer will disburse the funds on a quarterly basis.
While
the amount of individual pledges and contributions will be confidential, the
number of individuals involved in the witness, the total collected each
quarter, and the organizations to which the VCTW funds are contributed will be
shared with the meeting community and with others involved in carbon tax
witness.
�
Approved
at Meeting for Worship for Business on September 14, 2014
For
more information, please see:
Voluntary Carbon Tax Witness http://www.mounttobyfriends.org/action/voluntary-carbon-tax-witness/
Voluntary Carbon Tax������������ �� http://voluntarycarbontax.org/