[quote]conservativedog wrote:
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
I want an answer from someone. Why is it that, in the minds of many on here, it’s always the pro-global warming scientists who are the conspirators? Why is it that the anti-global warming crowd is assumed to be the benevolent ones here? Global warming scientists will have work and will get paid regardless; [/quote]
what do we have to lose in carbon footprint taxes?
when 85% (sounded like a good number) of the media excludes any dialogue from scientists that dispute man made global warming, you have to ask why?
it’s just another way to hamstring America. let’s all ride bikes for florida spring break and turn out the lights when you go to the bathroom. [/quote]
Look, I don’t really like the idea of a carbon tax. I think there is a solution to the climate change/global warming issue that we face. I’m not sure exactly what it is because I am not sure what is going on with the climate to begin with.
I believe that the majority of the evidence points to some level of anthropogenic factors contributing to an accelerated rise in global temperatures over the last few decades. I believe the evidence points this way because it does, not because there is some conspiracy at hand to defraud businesses and their customers with phony studies.
I don’t think the solution entails denying that any of this is going on to begin with. It’s one thing to say that there is some sort of issue at hand, but that taxing carbon emissions is not the solution to it. It’s another thing entirely to say that carbon taxes are not the solution because there is no problem to begin with. That is a huge distinction.
I have said on here in the past that part of the solution entails reducing gov’t expenditures, subsidies, funds, and so on that go to state/county levels in areas that are prone to increased issues related to further climate change. We should begin to reduce federal expenditures in areas that are vulnerable to droughts, fires, eroding coastlines, rising water levels, floods, and so on.
I don’t think the issues are unmanageable at all. I also don’t think these things will become major issues overnight; the changes will be slower and more gradual than most probably think. But they will happen, and there will be the appearance that they are happening very quickly if we are behind in our efforts because we refused to believe anything was even going on to begin with.
It is simply a matter of at least trying to adjust to the changes, rather than vainly use taxes to try to reverse what could be mostly irreversible at this point. While I think scientists have a fair approximation of what is going on, I don’t think they’re very close to understanding whether or not a long-term reversal is possible. Until we know that, we should proceed under the assumption that this is going to happen slowly and we need to make incremental changes in key areas at key times.
I think insurance costs are certainly something that will rise if there are more and more homes going up in flames during forest fires, or getting washed away in some freak warm storm that melts a huge snowpack or something like that. There are a lot of major cities, such as New Orleans and Sacramento, that sit well below sea level and are surrounded by vulnerable levees.
We should also change how we run our national parks, or privatize them entirely since private owners are more likely to take care of the property well. Regardless, we need to start trying to get these fucking eco-terrorist organizations to stop barring certain types of logging in certain areas.
There are all sorts of national parks all over the west/southwest portion of the country that are filled with dry underbrush and leftover burned wood from previous fires, all of which is a huge fire waiting to happen. But we can’t go in and clear it out because we can’t fuck with the “natural” state of the parks to that extent.
We should start clearing shit out of there on an unseen level, too, not some half-hearted compromise bullshit, because climate change will most likely continue to dry out these areas. The Sierra Nevadas and Cascade Range in particular are very vulnerable right now, even with the recent rain we’ve been hit with out here.
The northern and northeastern regions of the country need to get ready for more winters like this one, instead of thinking it’s some sort of freak event that will won’t be seen for another generation once summer hits.
We should stop subsidizing water-intensive crops all over the country. Rice in particular shouldn’t be subsidized anymore, since we’re paying to ship about half of all the rice grown here out of the country.
We should stop federal funds going to building infrastructures in nascent cities near deserts, such as LA, Vegas, pretty much all of AZ and NM, maybe parts of west Texas/Oklahoma, or southern Utah and most of NV as well.
But none of these practical, foresightful preparations can be made if people keep burying their heads in the sand about whether we’re even experiencing climate change or not.