Imagine your local Widget Factory, employs dozens of workers,
to put together hundreds of the latest Must-have Widgets, each and every day.
Now imagine this Widget Factory, in the hopes of increasing profits,
took all its industrial by-product Gunk, gathered them up each day,
and quietly dumped them, each night around midnight, when no one was looking,
in the local River waterway. Pollution be gone!
Instant Profit Gain, right? No costly "Gunk Processing" equipment to buy or operate. No extra hidden costs, need be added to that Price of a Widget -- which could keep consumers from flocking to Widget Retail Outlets, right?
Wrong ... ONE Big Problem in this Free Market scheme ...
The Folks living downstream on that local River waterway!
The Folks making a living on the beauty and productivity of that River --
They all might notice that somethings up, in their once pristine Waterway?
They might eventually figure it out too, that "Widget One" has been "cutting corners", in its responsibility to be "good neighbors".
In the case of Clean Water, we generally think, Keeping it Clean -- is worth the Price! (any Price.)
As a Society we value Clean Water -- because we can immediately see the Impacts, when "cost corners" get cut, for the unpure sake of MORE profits.
So why as a Society, DO we NOT see the Value of a Carbon-clean Atmosphere, too?
Probably because the "downstream locals" who will bear the brunt of CO2 Pollution -- are not just down the road!
No rather those "downstream locals" live a decade or two in the Future!
They can't cannot Speak up themselves NOW! (unless you bother to get the opinions of the youth generation, WHO are Alive Today, by the way.)
But imagine IF these "Downstreamers" could speak up for themselves -- I would expect they would say --
Keeping our Skies free of excess CO2 -- is worth the Price! (any Price.)
Whatever it adds to the Price of your 2010 Widgets, by factoring in the True Price of Carbon -- THAT is just your responsibility as "good temporal neighbors"!
Set a Price on Carbon -- and do it Now!
QUIT dumping YOUR CO2, Scott-free, into the Skies of OUR Globally-cooked World, of 2030.
Your POLLUTION IS NOT FREE!
We are forced to live with the consequences of YOUR Carbon Dioxide waste. So Please stop it. Like Yesterday!
The Climate Change science is overwhelming.
and the Quickest way to get rid of a Pollutant, is to set a Realistic Price on it.
OUR POLLUTION IS NOT FREE!
Those who pollute need to be held responsible for our Quick-Widget Quick-Profit mentality.
There are always "Hidden Costs" to Pollution, whether the instigators, ultimately pay for them, or not!
SOMEONE ALWAYS PAYS -- be it the Widget Manufacturer now, or simply their Grandchildren, LATER.
The True Costs of Pollution (even Carbon Pollution) get passed along to Others, one way or another. Nature, finds a way ...
The Sky should not be an Open Sewer. (simply because CO2 is invisible.)
Oxygen is invisible too -- yet we Treat THAT gas, like it really exists!
No less a reality should be given to Carbon Dioxide -- because that invisible gas ALSO impacts Living Systems -- equally as much as Oxygen does. Ocean "Dead Zones" have been the result -- from the Lack of Oxygen. They are "Concrete Evidence" that -- Invisible things often matter ...
Excess CO2 carries with it a similar Lethality. Too Much CO2, is NOT a Good Thing, not a good thing at all. The Science is Clear -- to the overwhemling majority of Scientists that is.
The Quickest way to get rid of a Pollutant, is to set a Realistic Price on it.
There are 3 major ways which have been proposed to Set such a Price on Carbon:
Cap-and-Trade
Supporters of cap-and-trade argue that it has two main strengths. It sets a steadily declining ceiling on carbon emissions, and, by creating a market that rewards companies for slashing CO2 (corporations that reduce emissions below their allotment can sell them on the open market) [...]
Carbon Tax
Proponents of a carbon tax say their plan has one overriding benefit: Its simplicity. They contend that by imposing a predictable and steadily increasing levy on fossil fuels, the carbon tax will also drive development of alternative sources of energy. [...]
Putting a Price on Carbon: An Emissions Cap or a Tax?
e360.yale.edu -- May 07, 2009
Cap-and-Dividend (aka. Cap-and-Refund)
Instead of a cap-and-trade system, the bill would institute what its sponsors call "cap-and-refund." Under the bill, the president would, beginning in 2012, set an overall cap on fossil-fuel emissions. That cap would remain in place until 2015, after which it would start declining by a quarter of a percent a year. So-called "upstream" emitters — mainly sellers or importers of coal, oil, and natural gas — would then have to buy permits from the federal government at a monthly auction. [...]
A New Approach in the Senate To Putting a Price on Carbon
e360.yale.edu --Apr 21, 2010
These three methods each have their Pro's and Con's (and I urge you to click the Yale links for a quick and concise summary) --
BUT all 3 have ONE Thing in Common --
They ALL Set a Price on Carbon -- it will no longer be treated as a "freebie" if any of these plans are implemented into law.
Producing and Dumping Carbon has REAL Costs. It is WAY overdue, that those downstream costs get factored into the Price of each Widget. Just as surely as costs are usually factored in, to prevent Dumping into our Rivers and our Seas. BP's "cost cutting" Disaster is a prime example of how important it is to do account for the Costs of Pollution. (One way or another, those "costs" will be paid by someone ...)
Indeed there are many who see this New "Carbon Pricing Market" as the next gold rush of the 21st Century -- Fortunes will be made by Going Green. Setting a Price on Carbon, provides the necessary Demand which will drive and sustain the Carbon-free Widgets of the future. Imagine you could of bought a 100 Shares in Microsoft back in the 80's ! Well Carbon Markets will establish many similar "ground floors" opportunities, in the "smart investments" of a Carbon-Free Future. IF we can muster the will to Act, as a Society ... for the greater good. Tall Order, I know.
To me this is the nitty gritty of the Carbon debate [that we should be having] -- WHO will get to control that New "Carbon Market" -- that is bound to happen sooner or later? (assuming "common sense" eventually wins the day.)
Will it be Wall Street Speculators, or the Average Consumer of Widgets, or Govt Permit Regulators?
We all know, how Wall Street can turn Gold, into Tinsel, if we let them -- given their track record with the Mortgage Market -- So why should we let them, screw up this new Carbon Reduction Market, too?
The Permits to Pollute, and their Trading Markets, should not be "rigged" (nor riggable). Such Permits, whether doled out, or auctioned, applied as VATs, must ultimately REDUCE THE DOWNSTREAM OUTPUTS of Carbon -- or else they must be fixed, so that the downstream costs DO get REDUCED!
[VAT: Value Added Tax]
The Kicker for setting a Real Price on Carbon: Alternate Energy Companies, will get an instant competitive advantage, NOT having to bid on, and pay for, or pass along, the disgusting Right to Pollute -- that Legacy Energy producers are so dependent on, even NOW.
Pollution is NOT part of the Green-Widget Business Model -- so they get rewarded, just for being "good neighbors" -- temporal or otherwise.
And their foresighted Carbon-free customers -- they would get to keep those Carbon-Dividend Checks of $1100 [assuming the 'Tax-and-Refund' Bill passes]. And those the Annual Carbon Auctions, will just keep on generating consumer rebates, and keep on stepping down the "Carbon Shares" in circulation, until that hoped for future day when most Carbon-based fuels, end up just an ancient bad memory ... a reckless indiscretion of youthful industrial age.
And those legacy Carbon-based Widgets -- will simply be "priced out" of the Market ... one day. Assuming We as a Society can muster the will to -- take that first step -- and Set a Price on Carbon!
And then finally, the Planet can begin to heal, from the damage of our constant "cost cutting" ... has imposed on the world for centuries now ...
There are always Hidden Costs to Pollution, whether the instigators, ultimately pay the Price, or not!
Someone always pays ...
YOUR POLLUTION IS NOT FREE! Carbon exacts, its Price.
There is NO "out of sight, out of mind", anymore.
Never should have been, in the first place ... that idea is a "long run" loser ... in any Earth-based Economic Model ...
Just ask the "Downstreamers" ...