The day will come when oil will hit US $100/barrel and we won't be willing to fill our cars with gas or fly or... wait a sec - - hey, guess what? The theory that paying more for carbon will make use use less of it has already been tested. And it's failed.
Tick. Tock.
Think about it. We've already faced a huge increase in the amount we pay for carbon, and it hasn't made much difference, has it?
I won't belabour this - our short term options are limited and the cap-and-trade system still has a few kinks to work out. But if oil and coal are among the most profitable industries in the world, how would a tax prevent the carbon industry from simply paying more for the right to pollute?
It wouldn't. Not unless taxes were so high as to discourage business altogether. Not bloody likely. We'd need one shocker of a price signal to stop consuming carbon. Wouldn't it be great if we one day opted for a built-in economic mechanism that actually makes it impossible to choke the planet?
Meanwhile, I should add, we get this quote from a NASA ice sheet researcher: "things are definitely far more serious than anyone would have thought five years ago."
Labels: carbon taxes, global warming
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