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Yeah, I've LONG wondered about that! This whole "warming/cooling" thing is so incredibly stupid....the earth doesn't give a rat's ass about what we do....there have been numerous ice ages...and what follows that? You betcha...warming! That's what might be happening now. In another century or so, it will cool again, and ice will threaten our cities..and on and on and on....
Taxing us will do nothing but make us poorer and miserable...and hopefully, we'll vote these jackasses out of office!
Yeah, I've LONG wondered about that! This whole "warming/cooling" thing is so incredibly stupid....the earth doesn't give a rat's ass about what we do....there have been numerous ice ages...and what follows that? You betcha...warming! That's what might be happening now. In another century or so, it will cool again, and ice will threaten our cities..and on and on and on....
Taxing us will do nothing but make us poorer and miserable...and hopefully, we'll vote these jackasses out of office!
Well, except for the fact that the people who study this stuff for a living say that you're wrong.
As for the original post in this thread, well, a tax on something would be intended to provide incentive not to do it. Just like a sin tax. Want people to burn less gas? Impose a gas tax. Want people to consume less soda? Have a soda tax.
Want greedy billionaires not to ruin the environment for our grandchildren? Tax their sins.
This probably isn't enough, but it's a step in the right direction. A lot more needs to be done.
Last edited by OwlAndSparrow; 06-30-2015 at 03:09 PM..
Reason: Additional information
Well, except for the fact that the people who study this stuff for a living say that you're wrong.
As for the original post in this thread, well, a tax on something would be intended to provide incentive not to do it. Just like a sin tax. Want people to burn less gas? Impose a gas tax. Want people to consume less soda? Have a soda tax.
Want greedy billionaires not to ruin the environment for our grandchildren? Tax their sins.
This probably isn't enough, but it's a step in the right direction. A lot more needs to be done.
So if I understand you correctly your admitting it'll lower the standard of living for average Americans considerable.
So if I understand you correctly your admitting it'll lower the standard of living for average Americans considerable.
If by that you mean that I didn't say anything like that at all, then sure.
I already pay a gas tax. I hardly even notice it.
If I were a smoker, I'd pay a sin tax on cigarettes. That would be pressure on me to quit, and quitting would be better for me, anyway. That would push me toward doing something that would, in the medium term and the long term, be better for me. Now, it's not the best reason to quit smoking, but some people don't care about anything but money, so trying to reason with them doesn't always work.
However, environmental regulations don't tend to affect my standard of living, since I'm a normal person leading an everyday life, not a billionaire trying to squeeze extra profits out of an already-booming oil industry. So, no, I didn't say what you said I said.
Even if the average American's quality of life depended on the profitability of just one industry, that industry can shift over time. Already, the U.S. is making great strides in switching to cleaner energy sources. Mourning the death of fossil fuels as our primary energy source will soon be a thing of the past as the rest of us move on.
Exxon and BP will be the 21st century equivalent of buggy whip manufacturers. Well, they would, but I think they're actually among the companies working to change our energy infrastructure. So, uh, even the CEOs of big corporations won't be hurt that much.
Things will have to change, but that doesn't mean things will get worse.
Unless we refuse to change, of course. If that happens, we're going to find out that nature doesn't wait for us to resolve our petty squabbles, and we're going to have coastal flooding, famine, and a massive influx of refugees from countries destabilized by natural disasters (ironically, ones we caused).
Ignoring climate change will result in a drastic decrease in our standard of living.
It's just another game of asset forfeiture on a larger scale.
Highway robbery on the interstate went so well and is so acceptable they needed to up the stakes.
Think of it as the Texas Holdem Championship.
If by that you mean that I didn't say anything like that at all, then sure.
I already pay a gas tax. I hardly even notice it.
If I were a smoker, I'd pay a sin tax on cigarettes. That would be pressure on me to quit, and quitting would be better for me, anyway. That would push me toward doing something that would, in the medium term and the long term, be better for me. Now, it's not the best reason to quit smoking, but some people don't care about anything but money, so trying to reason with them doesn't always work.
However, environmental regulations don't tend to affect my standard of living, since I'm a normal person leading an everyday life, not a billionaire trying to squeeze extra profits out of an already-booming oil industry. So, no, I didn't say what you said I said.
Even if the average American's quality of life depended on the profitability of just one industry, that industry can shift over time. Already, the U.S. is making great strides in switching to cleaner energy sources. Mourning the death of fossil fuels as our primary energy source will soon be a thing of the past as the rest of us move on.
Exxon and BP will be the 21st century equivalent of buggy whip manufacturers. Well, they would, but I think they're actually among the companies working to change our energy infrastructure. So, uh, even the CEOs of big corporations won't be hurt that much.
Things will have to change, but that doesn't mean things will get worse.
Unless we refuse to change, of course. If that happens, we're going to find out that nature doesn't wait for us to resolve our petty squabbles, and we're going to have coastal flooding, famine, and a massive influx of refugees from countries destabilized by natural disasters (ironically, ones we caused).
Ignoring climate change will result in a drastic decrease in our standard of living.
With all due respect i'm pushing close to 60 years old and I've been hearing the gloom and doom senarios just about all my life. Guess what i'm still here...sorry if i'm a little skeptical.
Well, except for the fact that the people who study this stuff for a living say that you're wrong.
Freeman Dyson (Princeton), and William Happer (Princeton), and Richard Lindzen (MIT), and Mike Stopa (Harvard), and William Gray (Col. State), and Nicola Scafetta (Duke), and an East Anglia whistleblower who was fed up enough to release the Climategate e-mails, and 160 physicists here, and others, don't think the commentator is wrong.
A carbon tax helps control carbon emission by giving an incentive to change ones behavior to do less carbon is emitting into the environment , use new technology to either use less carbon or no carbon at all or use technology to remove carbon from the environment or from exhaust stream.
Back in the 16th century if one had offal , garbage or bodily wastes the standard and cheapest practice was to throw it in the street or if you were lucky like the people of London England into a stream or river like the Thames. One could get away with this when London only had 20-30,000 residents residing along a stretch of river 50 miles long.
But as the 17th century and 18th century dawned the population rose to over 100,000 and then to one million. Now the streets of London were foul and living in such filth made cholera, typhoid,dysentery and other airborne and water borne diseases a part of the fabric of everyday life. It was obvious human activity and behavior were having a huge impact of the environment at least locally. It was so bad that it was seriously suggested that the monarchy and Parliament abandon London and retire to countryside for their health!
What the British did was first make it a crime to throw your garbage or sewage or offal in the street you either had to take it to a proper city run dump and pay a dumping fee or pay to be hooked up to a city run sewer. London originally ran all its sewers to the Thames but when the river became a sewer itself, they raised the taxes to build large sewer tunnels that paralleled the Thames and ran all the way to the Thames esturary where it went into the North Sea. Later they built enormous sewer treatment plants to cease the dumping of millions of peoples sewage into the environment. For even the North Sea wasn't big enough to take care of the sewage 9 million Britons created every day.
The sewage problem and its solution is essentially identical to that of any other form of environmental pollution such as the exhausts of any system burning fossil fuels or even bio derived fuels like wood.
The consequences of climate change are as big a threat to public health and safety as turd was floating down the Thames. We can either accept the consequence of climate change no mater how painful or raise the fees and taxes to pay for the technology or labor to do something about it. Cleaning up London was not quick or easy and did people complain about having to pay a sewer levy or pay to have the garbage carted away, you bet. Was the effort worth it absolutely.
Last edited by mwruckman; 06-30-2015 at 04:01 PM..
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