A Socialist View from Outside the Box

In Australia, more people believe in human enhanced climate change than don’t… even liberals… (Apart from Nick Minchin and a handful of his followers…) the question isn’t if its real, its what we should do about it that’s got the debate going…

The Liberal plan will see Millions of Trees planted to sequester carbon which on its own is not a bad idea but given the number of trees cut down each year around the world its not going to achieve much by way of carbon reduction.

Part of the Liberal plan is to create several clean energy plants to compete with coal driven facilities but several questions are raised about this.

Competing with coal is not the answer, reducing coal use to complete eradication is required within the next 15 to 30 years to have any impact on carbon dioxide reduction. Building clean energy facilities is only going to create another pathway to wealth for a handful of industry heavies.

Funding the Liberal coalitions plan is also questionable. It has been suggested the Liberal policy will cost Tax payers an average of $750 per year with these funds coming from the general coffers. Raising the question about what services are going to miss out on funding as a result. This $750 year could add a lot a child’s Education, could fund additional nurses in hospitals or repair or rebuild failing transport channels, roads and other infrastructure around the country.

The Green/Labor Carbon price is the only logical alternative to reducing carbon emissions through Market based incentives driven by the additional cost of fossil fuel energy with the addition of the carbon price.

The carbon price also allows for additional funding in addition to the federal budget to construct the required clean energy plants as well as compensate consumers at a retail level for any increases in prices after the carbon price is added.

Eradication of coal and oil is inevitable… the time frame is the only unknown… Fossil fuels can not last forever… Anyone who thinks they will are few and far between!

When the hole in a bucket becomes bigger than the flow of water going into it the bucket empties quicker… unless we reduce the size of the hole first!

The United States alone consumes more than 1,500,000,000 litres of oil every DAY, considering oil takes millions of years to create anyone with a calculator could easily work out oil supplies are running out.

I am looking forward to the day (hopefully in my lifetime) where our economy has restructured to allow for both coal and oil to be a negligible part of where and how wealth is created… the carbon price is a huge step to making that happen… when it becomes more expensive to purchase coal and oil powered energy and machinery (when the carbon price is added) people will move away from using them…

If that requires a temporary collapse of the economy, so be it… but I doubt very much that will happen… because the carbon price will cause a steady move from one to the other not an immediate crash or recession based on an abrupt change… which is what will happen if we continue using coal and oil at current levels…

Humans are not the ONLY cause of Global Warming but there are only certain things we can alter – typically the things we have caused or initiated. We can’t plug volcanoes or alter the distance between the earth and the sun that is obvious.

Historically, Trees eliminated excess CO2 as it was produced (mainly from Volcanoes). Unfortunately we are also the cause of deforestation at the same time as producing more carbon dioxide. In other words we are cutting down the filtration system that has historically reduced CO2 levels.

If I could insert a graph here it would show a decline in trees and an increase in CO2 emissions. Planting more trees will help eliminate CO2 when the levels decrease, but we have to get the current and anticipated future levels down first. The best way of doing that is to slow down the use of Fossil Fuels and increase the use of Wind and Solar energies.

Its a simple solution really and one that the C onservatives would jump on if only these renewables produced the same income as Coal & Oil (which are in diminishing supply).

There are other things that cause Global Warming… Methane for example. Bovine Gas is one of the main causes of this.

I have read some research where trails were undertaken on several ways of either preventing wind from cattle (caused by a complex digestive system). Some research has tried to capture this gas where cattle had to wear contraptions around their stomachs while a valve was inserted through the wall of the stomach… more realistic trials have included medication to reduce the amount of gas cattle make. But the key is that research is being undertaken.

Pricing Carbon is a good tool for reducing CO2 emissions because it provides incentive to change to renewable Energy options while providing an Income source to invest in those renewables.