Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 03/14/2009 2:20:05 PM PDT by Shermy
Europe's carbon trading scheme has proved to be "disastrous" and a "scam" in which companies have profited with no effect on emissions...
The environmentalist James Lovelock — who developed the Gaia theory of the planet as a "living organism" — and the former environment minister, Michael Meacher, said...
"In principle [carbon trading] is not a bad idea but in operation it's been disastrous. Business has frankly made billions out of artificial reductions of what is called hot air with absolutely no environmental benefit at all," said Meacher, singling out the ETS for being distorted by commerce. "Governments under pressure from industry – the worst example is Germany – gave away far more allowances than industry actually needed."
...Lovelock said the scheme had failed. "Carbon trading was an idea with potential but the danger is that it so rapidly develops into a scam," he said.
The comments follow criticism of the ETS from industry insiders including the former chief executive of BP, Lord Browne, who said that the scheme has been ineffective. Vincent de Rivaz, the chief executive of the UK arm of EDF Energy, dubbed the carbon market the new "sub-prime". Lord Turner, the UK government's climate adviser, last week called for a floor price on European carbon permits.
Meacher expressed pessimism for future "market-driven environmental action", whether it was reducing carbon emissions through trading or protecting biodiversity by applying a price to "ecosystem services" such as medicines from rainforests. "I have real doubts because the whole process is distorted at every level. Industry pressures governments by saying 'if you do this it'll affect national welfare, it'll affect jobs and it'll lead to industry going out of this country, you have to do what we say'. And, one after another, governments fall for it."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
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Whaa? Even the tree huggers are getting on board?
The treehuggers are attacking the scheme from the other side.
They want more direct regulation with no market-based components.
Madoff perp walk trickle down or he’s PO’d that he lost control of HIS scam?
How does that work? Sheer emotion?
It’s simple: the Earth is alot less fragile than these people make it out to be. But of course, they need their agendas funded by stupid governments.
If I read correctly, he is calling cap and trade “market forces” so I assume he actually wants government to arbitrarily force companies out of any carbon emissions. Funny thing is that they really haven’t allowed “market forces” to actually work.
I agree with the spirit of this - cap and trade is a complete fraud. The real problem is that they still see man (capitalism) as the cause for “global warming” therefore more draconian measures are needed to “save” mother earth.
I hope I’m not reading too much into this, but I’ve learned to understand the evil liberal mind over the years.
It doesn’t work at all, if your goal is to actually prevent release of contaminants in the most efficient way.
Writing in hard regulations about how much carbon a given process will be allowed to release, however, works just dandy if your true goal is to feel good about yourself as a crusader to save the planet or to gain more control over the economy, even at the cost of destroying it.
Brings to mind the need to pick apart the *true* global warming models by performing sensitivity analyses on the parameters used...
Cheers!
He's wrong. The scheme has succeeded spectacularly. Algore and the other schemers have made fortunes and none of them are in jail.
Bernard Madoff is envious.
Competing insanities, Gaia -vs- cap and trade. I feel like ive been accidently locked inside the asylum while visiting someone.
Yep!
Follow the money.
Odd how that happens with so many things "liberal"...
Reminds me of story after WWII when the military authorities or somebody set up the currency exchange rates for all the new countries. So the experts went to work but it only took 48 hours for the people to figure out the 11 exchanges that would generate a profit. (Numbers are a guess.)
So, now we know why this legislation is expected to take longer than anticipated. It’s not that our leaders are contemplating the scientific papers which we all read refuting the CO2 threat to the planet. No they are studying the EU experience and are still making their deals.
What’s a Gaia?
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