Carbon Credits have the potential to be the next great currency. Despite us not really wanting them at all, we will have to do something that stops us having more hurricanes like the one we had yesterday in the southern US. Hurricanes cost a lot of money and insurance companies are going to say that unless parties are seen to be taking all possible action to minimize the weather’s destruction, we won’t pay out. Insurers will find any reason not to pay out. It might be almost mandatory to have Carbon Credits one day and there seems to be no alternative world currency that escapes local political intervention that we can all trust. Carbon Credits are going to hold the same value where ever you are because CO2 has a global impact.
If anyone thinks that this makes any sense (especially the last sentence) then please explain in the comments.
Carbon Credit, Yen, Quad
Money is money, no matter what you call it.
Does “seem like” some corporate thugs (Al Gored) trying to corporitize what used to be a commonly accepted regulatory issue.
Similarly–preventing Ozone pollution was done by regulation, not “credits.”
I think reasonable people want intelligent reduction of Carbon Pollution–not another way for rich people to soak the masses while not reducing pollution at all.
If let a lot of CO2 in the air I’ll have to pay for Carbon Credits, right?
But what if I don’t put CO2 in the air, will I get paid? So if I do nothing, I’ll finally get that new Farrari.
So, people have to quit breathing? Animals too?
#4–Paddy==I just hope minimum wage pays enough to cover that personal carbon credit. What if they charge for methane emission next? No breathing, no farting. Takes all the fun out.
I don’t think this is a good idea. We’d be moving from one fiat currency to a completely false fiat currency. (after all, how can one have carbon credits? We’re all carbon based life forms, taking in Oxygen and expelling Carbon dioxide.) I don’t think I can really explain a carbon credit, as it is not a credit at all, but a new form of currency that is based on nothing. (not that the US dollar or EU dollar are any better)
I can explain the last sentence.
Carbon credits will be one of the factors used to push for a single global market as well as a single global currency.
That is how they will be able to hold the same value regardless of location.
Global warming is simply not factual. This is not just about another tax to raise more cash, but something far bigger.
Carbon credits seem to me to be a modern equivalent to the catholic church’s indulgences. Instead of ‘sure you can have unclean thoughts about your neighbor’s wife just buy on of these every time you do’ it’s now ‘sure you drive a hummer just give us money for all the extra gas you will use.’ Both of them seem to be greedy people trying to make money off of other peoples guilt.
Ban all soft drinks and sparkling wines.
Good point Jed, but like I said, I don’t think this is just about making a bit more money.
You know, the “concept” of carbon credit has much more validity than just addressing Global Warming. It is pollution and a tax is warranted for the costs of clean up or for an inducement to avoid its creation.
A stock market makes sense too. Its just that where there is money, there is chicanery. It may be academic, but the idea itself is a separate issue from what we humans will do with it later. When we corrupt the idea of God, not much is immune from this.
#11 booboo said, “It is pollution and a tax is warranted for the costs of clean up or for an inducement to avoid its creation.”
So, how much is the “tax” going to be for exhaling?
#12–Paddiot==I let that imbecilic retardation go the first time leaving you to match wits with Mustard.
Really, stop being so silly.
#13 – Bobo
>>I let that imbecilic retardation go the first
>>time leaving you to match wits with Mustard.
I think Bobo, that after Paddy-RAMBO got his ass whooped trying to match wits with me in the first place, he decided to pick an easier target.
He may have some trouble with your punctuation, spellling, capitalization, grammar, and logic, but the rest of it should be a walk in the park.
# 13 bobbo said, “Really, stop being so silly.”
What’s silly about taxing pollution sources?
# 14 Mister Mustard said, “He may have some trouble with your punctuation, spellling, capitalization, grammar, and logic, but the rest of it should be a walk in the park.”
LOL
What we need is some kind of device to encourage more plant growth on Earth to better scrub the atmosphere of CO2.
I note that advanced aquarium owners purposely bubble CO2 through their fish tanks to create luxurious foliage.
So what I’m thinking is that if, somehow, we could all have a CO2 generator attached to our cars as we drove around, this would be very beneficial for the Earth’s plants.
RBG
Mustard==I agree. Well done.
# 17 RBG said, “So what I’m thinking is that if, somehow, we could all have a CO2 generator attached to our cars as we drove around,…”
Just tie a rope around the ankles of a local politician, tie the other end to your bumper…
The car IS the CO2 generator… So are the electrical generating plant, the home furnace, any and every factory, every car, train, bus, airplane, motorcycle, lawn mower, leaf blower, paving machine, ship, submarine — geez, it’s beginning to sound like we have more mechanical CO2 generators than people!
If you earn these credits just by producing less CO2, the Amish should clean up!
I will start buying carbon credits the same day they announce they have figured out how to curtail volcanoes, control sunspots and stop dead vegetation from rotting.
We need to cut down more forests before they burn naturally releasing all their stored carbon.
RBG
This carbon credit thing doesn’t make any sense. What makes the currency carbon specific if they are the universal currency. You may as well just charge a carbon tax. Pegging a currency to the value of carbon emission would be crippling to the poor and enabling to the rich.
How many minutes of driving is a loaf of bread worth?
I don’t think it is going to happen.
As #8 suggested, carbon credits are modern era version of indulgences with a dash of Ponzi. It is a way of justifying your Hummer to the environmentalists. On the flip side, it is a scheme used by financially savvy environmentalists to make money off the guilt of yuppies.
If carbon credits become stable money, it would be the first time in history for a government (fiat) money. If we’re to follow experience, there would be a constant inflation in these titles, thus defeating the purpose. It looks like another scheme to plunder business and eventually the poor.
Ditto to #21, Animby
To the tune of the Beatles “Taxman”:
“I’ll tax your breath…
‘Cause I’m the Taxman,
Yeah, I’m the Taxman!”
This search on Google give 66 thousands hits
“carbon credits” fraud
This one give 98 thousands
“carbon credits” scam
Years left until reserves are all gone
Oil: 37 to 74 years
Natural gas: 63 years
Coal: 164 years
This is assuming no population growth, no consumption growth.
Burning of all this produce CO2 and a lot of pollutions and problems.
Global warming, climate change, are irrelevant, kyoto and IPCC are irrelevant.
What we need to concentrate on is to stop using, burning fossil fuels ASAP and convert our world economy on high density, clean energy, electric cars, maglev mass transit systems etc…
The key word here is HIGH DENSITY clean energy. Not that low density energy like wind and solar that need more fossil fuels to produce that what we get out of the system.
Read “Beyond fossil fools” by Joseph M. Shuster.
Who s going to pay the carbon tax for this?
Be especially careful of websites that sell carbon credits. They are simply sending a portion of your money on to charities that claim to be providing assistance to third world countries that offset your carbon usage. The big themes seem to be cook stoves that use less wood and replanting schemes. Pish! I’ve worked in these areas most of my professional life. New cook stoves (solar, especially) are introduced regularly and with great enthusiasm – by the introducers. Locals take them with a smile – and all the other swag they can get – and then continue cooking the old way. Replanting trees? There’s a reason those areas are bare. It’s usually because the people are using the land for agriculture. Most loggers in the world now have reforestation programs. (I know a printing company in Indonesia that maintains forests in Indonesia and Malaysia. They plant far more than they harvest.) But, let’s assume these programs ARE worthwhile. YOu buy a “carbon offset” for $1. The website immediately takes half for administration costs. Fifty cents is sent onward. That agency needs 20 or 30 cents for overhead. So your generously donated dollar ends up as 20¢ worth of wasted effort. Save your carbon offsets and plant a tree in your backyard. It’ll help just as much and be a lot more fulfilling.
Yes. I know the difference between “Carbon Credits” and “Carbon Offsets.”
Simplify your thinking.
Problem: Polluting our only planet.
Paying for the right to pollute does not prevent pollution. It just moves the sources of pollution from one place on our only planet to another place on our only planet. Problem not solved.
Credit schemes are ways to avoid reducing pollution of our only planet – nothing more.
Everything else is an attempt to fog the mind – for profit.
Simple isn’t it?
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