Thursday, November 16, 2006

CO2 Dumping



One hundred years from now, folks will look back at this time in history and wonder with horror how a seemingly intelligent civilization could have allowed the wholesale dumping of climate changing gases into our atmosphere with out even having to pay for that privilege.

If you go to the land dump, you pay a tipping fee, but if you dump crap into our air, the air we breathe, there is no charge. Remarkable that we can be so blind to simple truths.

Well, at the 12th meeting fo the COP, which makes no news in this country, the Swiss are now calling for a Global Tax on CO2.

Here is the story.

Swiss step up calls for global CO2 tax
Copyright 2006, Swissinfo
November 15, 2006

Swiss President Moritz Leuenberger has called for the introduction of an international tax on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to fight global warming.

Speaking in Nairobi at the United Nations Climate Conference on Wednesday, Leuenberger said that such a levy would help those worst affected by climate change. The president explained that each individual and business would pay the tax based on their CO2 emissions, with revenue going towards measures mitigating the effects of global warming.

Leuenberger said that it would encourage major producers of CO2 to cut their emissions and provide sufficient funding for the measures. He added that the levy would also compensate those suffering from climate change.

"It is precisely those who so far have contributed the least to the causes who are the most severely affected by [...] global warming," he said.

Leuenberger said it would be major step forward if the conference could discuss the financing and the management of funds for different measures.

In his speech, the president admitted that there had been some progress over the past decade in fighting climate change, but that efforts had been so far insufficient."We have waited too long and we have lacked focus in our efforts to get to grips with the problem," he said.

"And with major disasters increasing by the day, we have to talk about adaptation, namely how protect ourselves here and now against threats."

Leuenberger warned that it was no longer enough to tackle the causes of global warming, but that it was also necessary to protect people against imminent harm as well deal with any consequences of climate change."We must combine our measures to prevent future global warming with our efforts to tackle the current effects of natural disasters that have occurred," he added." more

Now, as much as I like the spirit of this,

the letter of it is all wrong.

This should not be called a tax.

There should be a fee for dumping chemicals into the air.

And if you remove CO2, or other out of balance chemicals from the air,

you should get paid for doing it.

Goat farmers in Mexico could reduce their herds

and get paid for letting their trees grow back.

If you cut a forest down, you must pay for the carbon you release.

When and if you let it grow back, you get an annual credit.

A CO2 Tax is the right idea with the wrong name.

And forget about cap and trade.

It will be supported by the corporate psychos who want

to continue the equivalent of trading uncommited crimes.

By their way of thinking,

If one guy has been killing three guys a day and

he falls behind in his killing spree,

he should be able to trade that non kill

to an exuberant killer who has gone over his quota.

That's how psycho they are.

If you must dump into the atmosphere,

then you must pay a dumping fee,

Not a Tax.



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