Carbon Economy

While I am on the subject of economic stuff and all, I thought I would add this.

As we all know, Bush in his infinite wisdom decided to reject the Kyoto Protocol. The reason given was it would cost us too much money, and there is no evidence that climat change is going on. All thet "evidence" that scientists come up with is just propaganda, invented to support liberal causes. Besides, these are the same scientists that would have you believe that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago, and that the Earth is not a little over 6,000 years old like the bible supposedly says it is.
Those liberal science guys with their crazy ideas!

But outside the USA, most first world nations adopted the protocol. The main goal of the protocol is to lower carbon emissions to pre 1990 levels. Not that this is a perfect solution, there are other gasses that trap heat much better than CO2, like for example SF5 (sulfur hexaflouride). SF5 is used by industry because it has excellent electrical insulation properties. Gasses like SF5 would not really be covered by Kyoto, but the reality is that pressure is already on industry by the EPA to get rid of the stuff.

How do you reduce CO2 output? Most people think of industry and coal / oil power plants. While much CO2 is produced by industry, the simple fact is that industry alone can not lower CO2 production enough to put nations in line with Kyoto goals. This means that people - consumers - have to kick in too. While the amount of CO2 that one car creates is nothing compared to a factory - combine your car with the millions of other cars and we are talking a lot of carbon!

So how do you get people to lower their CO2 production? Well you could simply raise, or create, an energy tax. This would make stuff more expensive, and therefore people would buy less. But this is not a very popular train of thought - as the tax would put the pinch on the people living in the lower ends of the income distribution scale, while the people on the top would simply pay for a tax exemption.

Then there is THIS IDEA (from the BBC website). What this idea does is make pollution a commodity. It is brilliant in its simplicity really.

In case you do not want to read the very short article, here are the highpoints. Everyone would be issued a "carbon debit card". When you make certian purchases, you would swipe the carbon debit card and have some carbon credits deducted from your account. Pretty simple huh?

But what if you run out of credits? No problem! You could buy more credits on the open market. And who would you buy the credits from? You would buy credits from someone who did not use up all of theirs.

In other words, a type of commodity market would be created. Those who do not use their carbon credits could sell them to someone who needs more.

So if you take public transportation to work, and ride a bike or walk if you need to go only a short distance, you would likely have spare credits that you could sell on an open market. If you feel you must drive the 6 MPG hummer around town you will likely need to buy more credits. Needless to say, people on the lower end of the income food chain will likely be the ones with spare credits, while those at the top will be buyers of credits. Retired people would also be more likely to end up with spare credits.

Of course, you would not need to sell your credits. You could hoard them, just like shares of stock. You could save your credits up to take that road trip, or catch that flight to Japan. The choice would be up to you.

Consumer choices would also effect your carbon spending. Say you decide to buy a new car. The car that gets 40 mpg would "cost" you less of your carbon balance than a vehicle that gets only 15 mpg. The water heater with a higher efficiency rating would cost less of your carbon balance than the one with poor insulation. You might even be able to add to your carbon balance by buying a solar water heating system. And because you could sell your unused balance, buying stuff that cost less of your carbon balance could end up saving you money on top of money. For example, that hybrid car that costs $3,000 more than a similar gas only car would save you money on gas AND allow you to sell some of your extra carbon. Buying a solar water heater system would save you electricity, and give you more carbon to sell or use.

While not a perfect solution to the whole greenhouse gas creation thing, the carbon economy idea might be something worth trying.