On Mon, 23 Apr 2007 04:32:03 -0700, K Isham said about:
- Global Warming? So What? Remember the Ice Age Scare?


wrote:

Here is a link to the latest IPCC findinigs on Global Warming;

big snip.

I read about how Al Gore explained how buying Carbon credits minimized
his "Carbon Footprint' when explaining why it takes $20,000 a month to
electrify his home.

Al Gore supposedly bought extremely clean electricity,
possibly solar. Unlike most Carbon credits, this was
less "market force", and more green-force driven.
That is, that power would not have been on the grid
without greenies to pay extra for it. (I am guessing here.)
Thus, this was not typical useage of the Carbon credit system,
which is mainstream market driven.

I'm confused, how does buying a Carbon Credit eliminate air pollution?

"Air pollution" here, means CO2. (clue: *carbon* credit)

It's a "market solution," it's advantage is
flexibility, it's less harsh on big polluters
such as coal-fired electric generators
than say, inflexible local pollution cap regulations.
And it pays generators for being extra clean.
Thus, it is less harsh on the industry as a whole.

The goal here is *total pollution reduction,* not
punishment of bad boys. This theory has some validity
since CO2 is not a local problem, it is a global
(total output) problem.

Roughly, it works like this.
An industry such as coal-fired electric generators
is given an overall pollution cap. (This is good,
since this cap either freezes or reduces total global
pollution.) Next, each generator is assigned
a fraction of (his share) of the total cap, based
on say, amount (his share) of electricity produced.
This share is converted into pollution credits.
The clean generators are rewarded for being
or getting clean, since they can sell their unused
pollution credits to the dirty generators that need
all the pollution credits they can get to stay legal.
Buying expensive pollution credits is punishment for
the dirty bad boys.

Typically the pollution caps reduce over time.

This system has largely failed in the EU because
the pollution credits were too cheap. Buying
credits became a cost of doing business, rather
than encouraging clean-up. The proper *value*
assignments are absolutly critical for it to work.

Also absolutlely critical is industry hands-off
of government in assigning value and in reducing caps.
Else, the above failure is likely. Thus, such a system
is likly to fail in bribery/fascist ridden nations
such as the USA. ...Uhm...I mean lobby-finance ridden.


** "Fascism should more properly be called
** corporatism, since it is the merger of state
** and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people
tolerate the growth of private power to a point where
it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself.
That in it's essence is fascism: ownership of the
government by an individual, by a group or any
controlling private power."
-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, message to congress.


--

When one gains a political certainty akin to
a loyal sports fan, one has achieved the final
tranquility of servitude, a joyous slavery.


"If ye love wealth better than liberty,
the tranquility of servitude better than
the animating contest of freedom,
go home from us in peace.
We ask not your counsels or arms.
Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.
May your chains set lightly upon you,
and may posterity forget that ye were
our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, August 1, 1776