[Terrapreta] why we must relate to cap and trade

[lou gold]

OK Duane,

1) I will share in your wish that the climate skeptics might be right (at
least for awhile) because it might mean less suffering in our difficult
world. However, it poses quite a dilemma in the longer term. DOTearth has a
good discussion here:

May 1, 2008,  9:52 am
Can Climate Campaigns Withstand a Cooling Test?
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/can-climate-campaigns-withstand-a-cooling-test/

2) Your article (pdf link) is about the possibility of using biochar to
promote the Alberta oil industry. I do not doubt that your "phone is not
ringing off the hook."

3) You talk about someone achieving "consider influence" toward a carbon tax
and provide a link to his bio but no evidence of his significant influence.

4) You speculate that the opposition Liberal Party is toying with the idea
of a carbon tax but little more.

Somehow, these do not strike me as strong arguments.

hugs,

lou




On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 12:56 PM, Duane Pendergast <
still.thinking at computare.org> wrote:

>  Hi Lou,
>
>
>
> I think a lot of the early enthusiastic talk on cap and trade here in
> Canada ten years ago came from an industry perception they could benefit
> financially from cap and trade. That hope gradually faded and there is now
> more talk in Canada about the possibility of imposing revenue neutral
> carbon taxes. In fact the provinces of BC and Quebec have imposed carbon
> taxes. These are so small as to be meaningless relative to the increasing
> prices of fossil fuels. The BC carbon tax starts at 1.5 cents per litre.
> Quebec's is even less. Gasoline has gone up more like 30 cents/litre since
> the tax was announced.  The province of Alberta has imposed a subset of
> cap and trade with large industry required to pay into a fund for any
> emissions beyond a specified level. I actually mentioned the Albertascheme as potential funding support for terra preta research in the
> following article.
>
>
>
>
> http://www.computare.org/Support%20documents/Publications/Soil%20from%20Oil/Soil%20From%20Oil0001.pdf
>
>
>
> My phone is certainly not ringing off the hook as a result of the article.
>
>
>
> Dr Mark Jaccard is one of the foremost Canadian promoters of a carbon tax
> in preference to cap and trade. I think he is having considerable influence.
>
>
>
>
> http://www.rem.sfu.ca/faculty/jaccard.htm
>
>
>
> The leader of our opposition Liberal Party is said to be toying with a
> carbon tax as a plank in the next election campaign here. It will be
> interesting to see how that appeals to voters as they see the price of fuel
> climbing already.
>
>
>
> Frankly Lou, I'm hoping the climate skeptics are right that CO2 warming is
> not as drastic as some claim. They claim global temperature has been flat
> lining for ten years. Recent hedging of bets by the strongest of enthusiasts
> is evident and confirmation they agree with the lack of temperature
> increase. Even NASA is suggesting the Pacific Decadal Oscillation may mask
> or even reverse C02 warming for 20 to 30 years. My roses will certainly not
> be blooming by May 21 this spring as they have in recent years.
>
>
>
> Cheers!
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> *From:* lou gold [mailto:lou.gold at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* May 14, 2008 9:01 AM
> *To:* still.thinking at computare.org
> *Cc:* Terrapreta
> *Subject:* Re: [Terrapreta] why we must relate to cap and trade
>
>
>
> Duane,
>
> I know what you are talking about.
> But the 10 years of talk-but-no-action
> occurred in the context of denying that
> there is a climate problem. Now that is
> changing and the talk will move toward
> cap-and-trade versus a carbon tax. I
> believe (as a practical assessment of
> the current state of climate politics)
> that cap-and-trade -- though difficult --
> may have more political currency during
> a recession than a new carbon tax.
>
> Do you think otherwise?
>
> hugs,
>
> lou
>
>
>



-- 
http://lougold.blogspot.com
http://flickr.com/visionshare/sets
http://youtube.com/my_videos
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /attachments/20080514/e8411b1a/attachment.html