Many Real Estate Professionals embrace a Code of Ethics that directs us to remember “Under all is the land. Upon its wise utilization and widely allocated ownership depend the survival and growth of free institutions and of our civilization. REALTORS® should recognize that the interests of the nation and its citizens require the highest and best use of the land and the widest distribution of land ownership. They require the creation of adequate housing, the building of functioning cities, the development of productive industries and farms, and the preservation of a healthful environment. Such interests impose obligations beyond those of ordinary commerce. They impose grave social responsibility and a patriotic duty to which REALTORS® should dedicate themselves, and for which they should be diligent in preparing themselves. REALTORS®, therefore, are zealous to maintain and improve the standards of their calling and share with their fellow REALTORS® a common responsibility for its integrity and honor.”
How do we honor
this obligation to the highest and best use of the land, functioning cities,
productive industries, farms, free institutions, and the preservation of a
healthful environment? It seems to me that Real Estate Professionals are expected to stand with the environment, advocating conservation,
efficiency, and sustainability while opposing activities that will damage our civilization
and the livelihood of future generations who will live here.
We, as Real Estate professionals, have created REPAC one of the largest political action
groups in the nation.
We, as Real Estate professionals, have direct knowledge of the environment in which we do
business, because we are out there with our clients, inspecting the land.
We, as Real Estate professionals, have access to the best technology
and communication systems because that’s what we do as transactional agents.
We, as Real Estate professionals, care about our communities and the people who live and work
here, now and in the future.
We, as Real Estate professionals, believe in doing well by doing good.
Therefore, I
propose Real Estate Professionals support the Real Estate Professionals Climate Lobby, a
developing organization which will endorse wise use of
our land and resources. The Real Estate Professionals Climate Lobby will identify factual,
non- partisan solutions to climate change that will provide measurable results
in the next 20 years. One solution that Real Estate Professionals can support is a National Carbon Fee
and Dividend (CF&D) which would place a predictable, steadily rising price
on carbon, with all fees collected, minus transparent administrative costs,
returned to households as a monthly energy dividend. In just 20 years, studies
show, such a system could reduce carbon emissions to 50% of 1990 levels while
adding 2.8 million jobs to the American economy.
Industries must
stop damaging the earth and people with harmful chemicals or airborne
pollutants. Cities like Norfolk, New York and Miami will not function if they
flood. A healthful environment is sustainable in perpetuity, not threatened by
environmental catastrophe, chemical contamination or physical collapse. The
highest and best use of the land includes conservation and wise use to provide
stewardship of these resources for those who will live in the future with
knowledge and experience that does not exist in 2018.
High efficiency conservation and clean
energy generation make real property more valuable while creating no barriers
to property transfer. A highly efficient, unencumbered solar system, properly
adjusted for value at time of sale, can be an asset to an environmentally conscious
homebuyer. The cost benefit of efficiency and conservation eliminates the need
for mandated improvements.
Nobody but industry knew lead paint was bad
for children in the 1930-1960s. Cigarettes did not have health warnings until
1965, the warning was not conclusive until 1969, and did not specify Lung
Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, Carbon Monoxide, Fetal Injury, Premature
Birth, and Low Birth Weight until 1984.
Congress and
the EPA did not reduce lead to current levels until 2008 despite over 6,000
scientific studies. Lead was not banned from paint until 1978. The chemical
industry rejected scientific evidence on lead in the 1930’s, blaming families
for allowing children to eat the paint chips, claiming the children were
“sub-normal to start with.” Lead was
pumped into the air through gasoline emissions until 1995. These problems were
maintained at the expense of children who would grow up in a knowingly
hazardous future.
When we learn forests are the key to removing
carbon, and carbon is causing the oceans to warm and acidify, which increases
severe weather, what will the value of a forest then be? Could a forest or
river be a more valuable resource than a development? It’s hard to imagine
right now, and easier to ignore. We have seen massive forests destroyed to grow
food while new technology has multiplied the crop yield efficiency of an acre
beyond traditional row farming. Severe weather has made some farms nothing but
dustbowls, turning rivers into raging floods, or mud. The jet stream has been
increasingly disturbed, changing ocean and wind currents, contributing to
severe weather. Will ocean warmth and acidity threaten 70 % of the oxygen in
the atmosphere which is manufactured by single celled marine plants named
photosynthetic algae? Can we afford to gamble with that tipping point? I think
not.
I wonder
what the babies born today will be thinking when they are 50 years old in 2068,
if their drinking waters are polluted and their air is so loaded with carbon
that cloudy days and heat advisories are the norm. The Mauna Loa atmospheric
carbon level went over 410ppm in 2018 which is 17% or 60ppm above the
scientific safe level of 350ppm.
Extreme weather ravages every part of our world this year as
temperatures soar or sink due to atmospheric change. We cannot anticipate the
world we live in today will exist the same in their future. Our stewardship, or
lack of it will be remembered in history.
When animals are extinct, the oceans are higher, and everything else
that results from exploitation instead of stewardship for our posterity has
become a reality, those who live in that future will wonder what we were
thinking.
The 2017 NAR Property Rights and Environment
Committee recommended a commitment to principles of sustainability and energy
conservation which will preserve our environment and nation as a vibrant,
healthy prosperous place to live and work, endorsing programs and policies that
promote environmental resiliency while educating Real Estate Professionals and the public about voluntary, market-based solutions that reduce
greenhouse gases and conserve energy, including expedited permitting and tax benefits.
It seems to
me, as a Real Estate Professional, my industry is uniquely positioned
to advocate for the future. To lobby for the earth means only that once you
accept this reality, you dedicate
moments to signing and mailing letters to elected representatives who vote
against decarbonization of the Earth's atmosphere. Maybe you would travel to another place where
people do not understand the scientific reality of our planet and talk about
this. Maybe you just send an email, text or make a phone call for with your
family once a week. Maybe you will make a video, or visit an elected official
at a town meeting. Maye you will commit to learning about environmental science
from organizations like the Union of Concerned Scientists of the USA or Yale
Climate 360. I have decided follow a
path of stewardship by supporting families born today who will live in a world
I will not see unless I am 118 years old. Please join me.
The
important thing is, that in our hearts, we commit to protecting the Earth where
we will not live, because it is the place our grandchildren will live and
remember us. Imagine the good works you
could do and how your good works will be multiplied by your commitment to doing
well by doing good.
I watch
wildfires burn the west of my country, while superstorms destroy the east. Extreme
weather threatens land, functioning cities and healthful environments
everywhere on Earth. A continual hum of climate change, rising carbon levels in
the atmosphere, melting glaciers, wildlife degradation and floods stream across
national newspapers. I have come to
accept my responsibility reaches beyond my next closing, consultation, property
identification or marketing plan. As Real Estate Professionals, we can no longer stand in silence
as the very basis of our industry, the land and environment, is threatened. The
most recent United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
released in Korea on October 8, 2018 includes more than 6,000 scientific
references which can be summarized in just few sentences with terrible
implications for our future by 2040.
When I established my real estate business in 1996, my plan was to help other
people, practicing skills based on confidence, personal integrity, empathy, transparency,
comparable property analysis, investment opportunity, community knowledge, education,
property functionality, financial planning and transaction management. My business has been refined and succeeded
with hands on experience, earned trust and continued education that directly
improves the quality of life of those to whom I give my services. My goal was
never to convince people to do something that would benefit me before them, but
to give a service that is multifaceted, interpretative, highly personal, extremely
confidential and unique to each person.
In 2018 I have come to appreciate that my Code of Ethics reaches beyond
fiduciary, legal and transactional responsibilities. As a REALTOR® my obligation is to transparency and
integrity supporting my clients, our civilization and the preservation of a
healthful environment.
Sincerely,
David Carr,
MA, PSCS. Member GNHAR since 1996 T - @ctrealtordcarr
Copyright©2018 David Carr, REALTOR® , All Rights
reserved.
