Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Mark Reynolds, group executive director of the Citizens Climate Lobby, hopes this time Congress will act to implement a carbon tax, instead of letting another politically useful catastrophe slide by without meaningful climate action.
It’s time to act on climate change with a tax on carbon
By MARK REYNOLDS |
PUBLISHED: September 1, 2018 at 2:00 pm | UPDATED: September 1, 2018 at 2:01 pmThose of us who understand the existential threat posed by climate change have been waiting for the “Pearl Harbor moment” that galvanizes people and politicians alike into taking action to minimize that threat. 2018 is turning out to be a “Pearl Harbor year,” where a majority of Americans support taking action, and we’re ready for Congress to press forward.
We thought the wake-up call on climate change occurred in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina slammed and devastated New Orleans, a disaster that left 1,836 people dead and displaced tens of thousands more. Four years later, when legislation to price carbon made a run in Congress, any sense of urgency to deal with climate change was lost amid partisan squabbling and pushback from special interests.
The next opportunity for action came in 2012 when Superstorm Sandy roared up the East Coast with a storm surge that put much of New York City under water. The cover of Bloomberg Businessweek proclaimed, “It’s Global Warming, Stupid.” But again, nothing happened. Likewise, last year’s back-to-back-to-back storms — Harvey, Irma and Maria — left a swath of destruction from Houston to Puerto Rico totaling some $300 billion in damage. This, too, was not enough to spur action.
…
The terrifying vortex of fire that swept through Redding, is the latest Pearl Harbor moment for climate change in a year filled with such moments. Let us hope this year of infamy, together with the growing desire for action, will finally set the wheels in motion for Congress to enact meaningful solutions.
Mark Reynolds is executive director of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
Read more: https://www.pe.com/2018/09/01/its-time-to-act-on-climate-with-a-tax-on-carbon/
My first thought when I hear about a weather disaster is usually “I hope those people are receiving the help they need”. But perhaps not everyone shares my sense of priorities.
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Pearl Harbour – you mean when an anticipated attack that was confirmed in advance by the departing Japanese ambassador that happened while the military was told to stand down and the navy commander was ordered to put the ships back in a row so they could be destroyed and the event could be manipulated to get a pacifist nation onto a war footing?
That Pearl harbour?
What an appropriate analogy for manipulating the population into accepting a useless carbon tax. Does this guy realise that a carbon tax doesn’t reduce emissions? Really, does he? Does he think that taxing CO2 will reduce emissions of CO2?
Is he perhaps confusing a carbon tax with a cap and trade system? These pesky details about terminology! Sometimes they even affect contracts.
The fact that these people still call it a carbon tax should give you a clue as to how much they know about emissions of CO2.
… and their analogy doesn’t work out if you remember that the end result for Japan attempting to knock the US out in the Pacific was a thorough and comprehensive defeat. Perhaps they need to lie down in a darkened room to reconsider their Pearl Harbour tax, the unnecessary deaths it and how it might end- especially the likely ending actually.
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Adm. Yamamoto
It’s again quite evident that these fools haven’t ever opened a history book.
Katrina did way more damage to Biloxi than to New Orleans. But Biloxi getting wiped out wasn’t news for some reason.
Biloxi is a competent city. People were protected and the city continued to operate after the storm.
Add in the fact that this competent city was run by Republicans, and it’s understandable why the media didn’t want to talk about it.
There are a bunch of people out there that think the government can control the weather; if such a thing did exists, it would be alarmists making use of it. What a bunch of money grubbing, disaster loving sickos.
I have personally spoken with people who firmly believe that Bush used a weather machine to Target New Orleans in order to kill black people. I wonder what it is like to be that stupid?
“…to be so blissfully unencumbered by the ravages of higher intelligence.”
(Time Bandits , if i recall)
Did I miss the explanation for exactly how a Carbon Tax in the US was going to reduce CO2 and save the Earth and not make the US a much poorer nation? I looked but couldn’t find it. Hmmm. What is the purpose of the tax and who gets the money?
Maybe I’m not supposed to ask those questions?
Kctaz
Haven’t you heard? The tax will be “revenue-neutral”! It won’t actually cost you anything! The BC government showed how this will work some time ago.
1. Tax something
2. Spend the money on something unrelated
3. Check that it was all spent
4. Net gain for government = 0
5. Therefore it is revenue neutral
5. Therefore no one suffered any financial harm
Quite simple, really. I am not sure why Ontario stopped their carbon tax. The only thing that happened was a drop in the fuel price which will feed through the entire economy and drop the price of everything done and made here. That would give us a drop in GDP. Bad news, right? Everyone should go out and break a window.
One of my friends is ticked off because the price of his Tesla will go up $14,000 and without the subsidy he can’t afford it. His revenue just got ‘neutralised’.
France uni-party (UMP-PS or “UMPS”) voted for a tax on trucks during the Sarkozy presidency. It was tax “neutral”: the cost would be on all trucks using French roads (by a complex system of beacons, databases, cameras…) rather than on just French trucks paying gas tax by buying gas in France. The collection of the tax was exceptionally costly, 40% of the product of that tax went to the private collector body (an Italian consortium!).
The additional revenue of the tax would go to transportation projects that are an alternative to road transport (or something, it was very vague).
Nobody asked how a neutral weight tax (no additional weight for tax payers) with an unprecedented tax collection cost could “générer des excédents” (produce more money). The whole idea was transparently a scam.
That’s where an average 12 years old child could see through all the politician nonsense that even analyst, commentators on the MSM, public policy experts, lawyers and judges cannot or do not want to see through.
I don’t believe it is still the case, but at one time the turnpike and toll road fees imposed in Massachusetts went primarily to paying the toll boot operators with the remainder ostensibly going to maintenance. ‘Fast Trak’ and the such has reduced this, but I am not sure if the tolls were reduced to only the maintenance expense portion. Experience has taught me to suspect it hasn’t.
Ah, perhaps because Humans caused all these disasters they deserve the contempt displayed towards them by the warmunistas? Certainly this fellow seemed to have little concern for them!
I just looked at source on this topic who has reduced his direct postings here. Here is a quote the author of the post topic and others might find interesting:
“Additionally, I recently published the second short story in that series Dad, Is Climate Getting Worse in the United States? It confirms, using data from NOAA, USGS, EPA, and NIFC, that climate here in the States has, in fact, gotten better, not worse. Specifically, based on the linear trends of the data (data sources in parentheses), and contradicting the nonsensical alarmist propaganda that is broadcast and published daily (again, based on the linear trends of the data):
The Annual Number of Hurricanes Making Landfall on the Continental U.S. Has Decreased Since 1900 (NOAA AOML – Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory)
The Annual Number of Tornados for All 50 States Has Decreased Since 1954 (NOAA NWS – National Weather Service)
Drought Conditions for the Contiguous U.S. Have Decreased Since 1895 (NOAA NCDC – National Climatic Data Center, now known as the NCEI – National Centers for Environmental Information)
Floods for the Contiguous U.S. Streams and Rivers Have Decreased Since 1970 (USGS – United States Geological Survey)”
The link: https://bobtisdale.wordpress.com/2018/09/01/open-letter-to-u-s-politicians-running-for-office-in-2018/#more-11714
But,as an incompetent governmental official its hard to blame an improving climate for why your cities are falling apart around you.
…some quote about when its your best interest to be willfully ignorant.
Today’s world is threatened by a variety of disasters. Those who are in the decision-making situation are responsible for their decisions. If they were simply stupid then they should not have taken a responsible position. It is also obvious that mere foolish people can not be held accountable for their opinions.
Many mayors and president of other communities in France subscribed to “toxic” credits aka structured financial products aka bets on foreign currency future value.
When they lost their bet, they screamed that he was soooo unfair because they couldn’t know what these credits meant and what could happen. Nobody dared to question their competence in their role of presiding a community sometimes as important as a large département français (millions of people).
It was the bank’s fault. Nothing more to see move along.
So the French State took over the whole thing so the cost was shared even among citizens who managed to not elected people who would do such thing.
Isn’t that the textbook definition of the shock doctrine made famous and odiously used by the Reagan boys as described by the other Naomi? (The Naomi that isn’t a beautiful geologist that is so used to getting hit on, by all men except by Rajendra Pachauri.)
That is because she was not in Dr Pachauri’s field of vision
It seems Mark Reynolds is suffering from CSS (CO2 Stress Syndrome) . Fortunately the Australian Psychological Society has the solution in its recently published Handbook; but sadly he will wind up as a vegan cyclist on a strict organic diet keeping warm/cool with recyclable solar panels.
In Canada we have a carbon tax and since mid august it has definitely been getting colder across the country. An Environment Canada spokes-person predicts “things could get even colder by winter”.
Bouyed by this recent success the TrueDope government has decided to pay $4.5 billion for the rights to a pipeline to nowhere to carry nothing to market.
“In Canada we have a carbon tax and since mid august it has definitely been getting colder across the country”
Carbon tax = colder
No carbon tax = warmer
Possibly the carbon tax should be reduced (or revoked completely ) during the winter and then re-imposed during the summer. Fine tuning the tax percentages could be used to control the temperature to optimum value!
Reductio ad Absurdum
None of these so-called “climate disasters” was caused by increasing atmospheric CO2.
That is the BIG LIE in this story – but big lies are the primary tool of the extreme left.
The left has a perfectly negative predictive track record on this subject – every one of their very-scary predictions has failed to materialize – they have always been wrong.
When the left speaks, assume the opposite is true – and you will likely be right. 🙂
Mark Reynolds confuses and conflates weather with climate, a favorite tactic of Warmunists. Perhaps he is having a “Dumb and Dumber” moment.
I must have false memories. I clearly thought there were hurricanes in the 50s. And 60s. And 70s. And 80s. Seemed like every year.
A little more vague than group suicide anticipating The Rapture, but it’ll have to do. For now.
Let’s continue comparing the use of natural weather events as a means to enact “Green” stuff to the US’s response to Pearl Harbor.
To enact things like a Carbon Tax or other “sustainable” energy stuff because of the weather would be like, after Pearl Harbor, the US declaring war on Brazil.
Hurricaine Katrina and the mess that was New Orleans was a failure of the environmental radicals in that they blocked the sea wall plan for lake pontchartrain in the 70’s. Without it everybody knew it was only a matter of time before the city would flood again.it would have been a bargain compare to the cost of fixing the city.
Scott
New Orleans/Katrina was greatly affected by the state and local corrupt and inept governments: One N’OrLeans (democrat) congressman forced the National Guard trucks and boats to deliver him back through flood waters to his house so he could get some 28,000.00 in cash that had been left in his refrigerator freezer; more multi-hundred millions that were authorized for flood dams/canal wall repairs were funneled off into local projects (local pockets.) None of the money authorized for some 25 years had been spent on repairs to the canal walls, the pumps, nor the pump power supplies and controllers.
Yet more proof of noble cause corruption.
He’s openly declaring that it is alright to lie in order to panic the public into doing what he wants them to do.
“Those of us who understand the existential threat posed by climate change ”
So much certainty, so little clue
More climate con artists using fear and falsehoods to take other people’s money.
Katrina didn’t kill 1,836 people a failure of local and state government did. As as been discussed here none of the storms mentions are extraordinary if one bothers to study history. The reasons these hurricanes caused so much destruction compared to the past is because of the coastal development that has taken place since WWII. Of course the tropical cyclone experts have said exactly that but have been ignored and even ostracized.
Problem, reaction, solution
As Reynolds demonstrates, it’s all about raising taxes, nothing more.