The UN has made a more dire announcement than ever that will likely go unnoticed a few days from now.

‘We told you so’ will hardly make up for our collective lack of action.

That said, if the UN and our governments actually decide that they want to do something to save our planet, the answer is really quite simple:  we all agree that we will STOP allowing companies and individuals around the world from deducting anything related to fossil fuels as expenses when we do our taxes.

I run a small business.  I do a lot of driving.  Every year, my fuel bill has been increasing, but I’m the classic ‘boiling frog’.  I don’t do anything different because taking action in the short term seems more financially onerous than doing what I’m doing.

I then deduct about $3000 worth of gas expense from my tax bill.  It’s not a big deal, but I’m a small business.  What would this expense be like for, I don’t know, say a trucking company?  Or airline?

If we alter the rules by which everyone has to play, everyone will stop using fossil fuels.

Go a step further:  make investments in renewable energy and other alternatives more financially attractive.

Not bloody likely?

The UN has to walk the walk.  They can’t just tell us we’re bad and then not take ownership of the issue.

The UN oversees or at least holds moral suasion over a number of bodies that could help it implement such an initiative:  the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and even the accounting body known as the General Agreement on Accounting Principles (GAAP) that dictates accounting standards, particularly those related to deductions and treatment of expenses.

Anything is possible if we all commit to doing it at the same.

Call it the Big Leap Forward.  If we don’t, it’ll be the Slow Painful Death.