Barnaby Drake
Carbon Cap-and-Trade is basically a fraud. It is virtually unworkable and will not save the atmosphere or the world from global warming. This is why:-
Emissions Trading Scheme Fraud
CARBON Cap-and-Trade is basically a fraud. It is virtually unworkable and will not save the atmosphere or the world from global warming. This is why:-
For the sake of an illustration let us assume that the world contains 1000 hectares of tropical forest and the world produces currently 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The tropical forest has a capacity to annually absorb only 90 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide, hence the current imbalance and the rising volumes of this gas in the atmosphere. It is already inadequate for the task in hand by 10 tonnes per year, so just how is a cap-and-trade scheme going to work? The forest will not absorb any more carbon dioxide, no matter how much money is paid, so you cannot offset increased pollution against a finite resource. We are already overproducing carbon dioxide and the cap-and-trade method will allow us to increase the amount we are producing in line with the projected economic growth figures. Growth comes at a cost in terms of pollution and politicians are already talking in terms of high future growth to pay off the current debt they have incurred due to the recession. Trillions of dollars worth, in fact.
Apart from that, there is no guarantee that the carbon credits they are buying actually exist, or have not been over-sold or will be preserved into the future. Local economics and survival may dictate that these so-called carbon sinks, sink! We have a fine example of this where both State and Federal governments are prepared to destroy native forests and replace them with plantations which are legally defined as a rotational crop, yet they maintain the fiction that these forests are sustainable. If our own government cannot be honest with us, how can we expect greater probity from third world countries?
The carbon cap-and-trade scheme is driven by economists and corporate enterprise – the biggest polluters, and the scientists and environmentalists have little or no say in the equation. The significant word in all this is TRADE! Already the stock exchange is gearing up for this and many companies have sprung up to handle this new commodity. They have had international conferences and meetings of ministers, but none have stopped to look at the simple facts of the matter. We hear phrases like ‘supporting third world economies’, and ‘quota systems’, etc. Very shortly this will be just another futures commodity which will make a few stock brokers very rich and will probably actually increase the amount of pollution by making it easy to obtain extra quotas and permits. And in all this, the brokers will buy into third world forests, which will enrich many of the local dictators and increase the poverty of the natives when their assets are sold over their heads well into the future. In the Western World, the cost of these schemes will be passed on in increased charges for services and higher taxes to the taxpayers, who, as it turns out, will be paying for their own demise. This will be glossed over by spin doctors and glib-tongued politicians.
But the one thing that will not change is the capacity of these forests to absorb any more carbon dioxide than they are currently doing – a job they are struggling with at present. They fact that they have already gone past their limit seems not to have struck anyone and because you are paying someone not to cut them down does not increase their absorption capacity. They are currently being treated as though the current absorption rate does not exist, and when they appear in the cap-and-trade schedule, the traders are treating the forests as though this full absorption capacity is still available. There is actually nothing left to sell – they are already too busy trying to cope with the free pollution allowance currently given to these industrialists. This is remarkable like the current sub-prime problem – a way to make lots of money while exacerbating the problem. Sell worthless bits of real estate for high prices and let the public pick up the tab. Inevitably there will be a crash.
There is an old saying, ‘you can’t put a gallon into a one pint pot’. What we should be doing is cutting back our current emissions to a level that allows our natural resources to cope with the load. However, that does not fit in with economic policy and human greed.
On the other hand, the atmosphere is not at all concerned with the foibles of human economics and the machinations of politicians; it is only concerned with the volumes of these noxious gases being produced. It will remind us of this in rather dramatic ways in the not too distant future!
Barnaby Drake
