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Posts Tagged ‘kyoto accord’

Ever since the Kyoto Protocol set the stage for global concern and governmental intervention, the worldwide concern for global warming is inextricably tied to the production of carbon dioxide .  It was also at the Kyoto meeting that the phrase “Cap and Trade” seemed to find its voice and the concept has continued to grow as more and more governments saw this as the primary means to address the global warming concerns.  Now, Cap and Trade programs seem to be a growing trend, but the wisdom of yet another governmental program raises unsettling questions.

Just to add another opinion to the global warming issue, the natural and environmental solution seems to be getting minimal attention in the global community, and I think it is because they have not figured out a way to tax the trees.  This is more than a sarcastic swipe at governmental intrusion, but an objection to the boorish ignorance of the best solution that we have in the global warming concern.  If carbon dioxide is the named culprit of global warming, and tree remove carbon dioxide and release wonderful oxygen, why in the name of good sense aren’t there governmental initiatives with the same aggressive drive for a “Natural Solution?”  The need for heavy-handed governmental intrusion with a Green Tax or Cap and Trade should not be the singular solution while better solutions get a mild level of friendly encouragement.

Global warming is becoming something more than an environmental concern.  It is possible that global warming could be hijacked and used as political leverage, taxing opportunities, and power-mongering that will not serve the true issue at hand.  This would not be the first time opportunists have seized on a popular theme for political advantage. The fact that the Cap and Trade program promises that it will drive up the cost of energy.  This means that someone will get rich and the people at the bottom will struggle all the more.  This is worse than unfortunate.  The CBO report of February 2008 on the concerning Cap and Trade reports a 60 billion dollar market of these CO2 trading instruments in a speculative market where “banks, brokers, funds, arbitrageurs, and private traders now participate in a market valued at $60 billion in 2007.”  Does it start to make sense now?  This is becoming a multi-billion dollar marketplace where the fat cats will get fatter and the rest will watch from outside of their foreclosed homes.

Returning to my key issue, I am very concerned that the reforestation effort is a sideline issue promoted by private efforts with government encouragement.  Trees provide an immense benefit in sweeping the air of particles, taking out carbon dioxide, and replenishing the oxygen.  They serve other purposes as well.  They slow the rain and hold the soil in place which has obvious benefits.  They are a true natural resource.  It therefore seems to be that the best solution is lighten up on cap and trade and increase the reforestation efforts.  No matter the public rhetoric, we are looking at a solution that seems to offer no good solution except to aggravate people who are already financially stressed with a cost-laden program where the wealthy and powerful are lining up for “The Next Big Money Grab.”  There is a need for Toto to pull back the curtain once again to reveal the wizards behind the curtain that are pulling the levers to fool us all with their magic and seeming power.

Well realistically, trees are not nearly so much fun as people.  Trees charge nothing to do what they do.  They work at their task without complaint and without a government or union to control their production.  They can’t vote, and they never complain no matter how badly we treat them.  No wonder they have so little political weight in D.C. or other political conclaves.  At the end of the day, we will find that we may have taken the wrong route to the global warming issue chosing to fight nature with policital clout and taxation rather than joining with nature to find the solutions already in hand.  But then government cannot control nature, and worse yet, they can’t tax the trees.