ETS - Arguing by Analogy...
...doesn't work on the internet.
Suppose to tackle the risk of global obesity rich countries:
- set up a global "free market" on food.
- capped the market so that food production was restricted and prices go as high as possible.
- restrict participation to governments only excluding the individual poor.
Poor people starve as the price of food skyrockets, corrupt repressive regimes profit off starving their people, but the obesity total declines markedly.
Problem is solved.
The only slight flaw in this otherwise "brilliant" plan is that the governments of the worlds poorer nations must sign up to it willingly. Early indications are that some might not be keen.
Labels: ETS, NLG
Emission Trading Schemes
We should not be involved in emission trading*.
Kyoto based emissions caps have a few issues which bear thinking about.
The most important of which (from my perpective as an enviromentalist) is that they do not work. They do not reduce global carbon emissions, quite the opposite. The intention of ETS is to send a price signal to reduce carbon emissions, but the actual signal is the difference between the carbon prices of various competing carbon trading regimes. It fails by definition, because it is not global.
Second most important problem is that the idea of global Kyoto based emission trading caps are dead in the water, absolutely positively never going to be adopted by the Chinese or Indians or any developing world nation with a backbone. If we've waited this long before adoption, why adopt now when they are mere months from sinking below the surface never to be seen again?
Third most important problem (and this the reason the Chinese & Indians are not buying the BS) is that Kyoto agreements are manifestly exploitative of the third world. They are a tax on industrial growth at a time when the largest economies of the third world are raising almost 1 billion people out of poverty through industrialisation. They are a tax on industrialisation that subsidises reducing industrial capacity at a time when the first world nations(Europe/USA) supporting the measure are (cue fucking amazing surprise) reducing industrial capacity. These same first world pricks do presume to be running a "market" based in the financial centres of Europe and soon to be USA which will clip the ticket of every carbon trade - further penalising the 3rd world. And the best part is that the West recognises this problem and promises to remedy the unfairness by (get this) providing "aid" - the same aid that has been so successful in fulfilling the millenial goals of debt reuction (not), combating maliria (not), assisting with HIV harm reduction (not) and having broken hundreds of other similar aid promises down the line - Third World countries have a deep understanding of the worth of First World aid promises (paper + ink + free buffet at signing ceremony).
We. Should. Not. Make. Any. Commitment. To. An. Emission. Cap. Ever.
* Modification of comment posted in Public Address.
Labels: ETS, NLG
And now for something completely different...
Climate Change
The Kyoto Protocol, Emission Trading, "Green" politicians - these are key players in the fight against global warming and are all hopelessly wrong in their approach. They are unfair, unworkable and ineffective. Kyoto and all it accompanies is bull shit.
I do believe that climate change is a clear danger to the planet, a serious issue that deserves a serious response. Skeptics exist, but I do not understand how they can be so blase about how mankind is polluting the very air we breathe. Skeptics however are not the problem, they are bystanders. I think that much of the skepticism is derived not from a strange deficiency to face facts, but rather from an entirely understandable resistance to the bull shit approach used to "tackle" climate change.
I advocate a reduction in government to induce a reduction in GHG emissions. The final response is as yet unkown and will require massive societal change even to find. Our states are currently carbon unsustainable, they need to be pared back and resources allowed to be allocated efficiently. We the people need less interference, so that someone amoung us can find the solution. We need the cimate change solution to be compatible with human nature - encompassing economic growth, greed, ambition, safety and fairness.
GHG emissions are on the rise and we need to reduce them on a worldwide basis. This is the War that must be Won.
Labels: climate change, ETS, government, Greens, intro, kyoto
