Annie Leonard (the Story of Stuff, you know the video that makes capitalist zealots all frothy at the mouth) has a new video on why cap & trade is a scam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA6FS...layer_embedded

and for those who don't want to watch the video there is an article to accompany it.

Minuteman Media: Climate Scams Won’t Save the Planet

here is an excerpt:

Unfortunately, many offsets are just scams. Consider the case of Sinar Mas. This pulp and paper company cut down native forest in Indonesia, causing major devastation, and then planted palm oil trees on the wasteland it had created. Guess what it got for that? Offset credits for reforesting. This company destroys an entire forest ecosystem, installs a monoculture industrial plantation, and can still turn a profit from selling the trees cut down, the palm oil produced in their place, and carbon credits. As a result, a company somewhere else can continue to pollute. It doesn’t make any sense.

Third, carbon trading creates a new derivatives market in carbon credits that’s ripe for speculation. Remember the mortgage crisis, where bad loans were bundled and resold ad nauseum? Now imagine the investment banks that brought us the financial crisis gambling on carbon derivatives—and toxic carbon credits backed by nothing but hot air—creating a carbon bubble. This time when the bubble bursts, we could lose more than our houses. Our planet's ability to sustain life as we know it is at stake.

Above all, cap and trade is a dangerous distraction from what we must do to avert climate chaos. That includes shifting public support from fossil fuels to wind, solar, and other renewable energy alternatives, rebuilding our economy around new jobs in clean industries and energy efficiency improvements, and promoting policies that reward real innovators, not dirty industries.

Andrew

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“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Gee, you mean the enviroPardoners of today are just as much bullshit as the ones in the 14th century?

And that Cap and Trade (enviroPardoning on a huge scale) is no more effective than small-scale 'carbon credits'?

Shocking.

Its just the same old elite interests looking out for their own and fucking everybody else. No, its not shocking even in the slightest.

Andrew

__________________
“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Yup. In the 14th century, traditional religion was the cash cow. Today, it's the psuedo-religion of AGW.

Yes, I know, not all AGW proponents are that fervorous, but you must admit there are more than a few who are completely ape, calling for prison for disagreeing with AGW theory, etc.

Matt

So, what is the solution? Or, do we simply continue to pollute our air and water because such behavior is cheaper and convenient?

To be accurate it was prison for misrepresenting the science and deliberately confusing the public, not for disagreeing with AGW, but yeah, that is an extreme position regardless, but it was born of genuine frustration at industry funded lobbyists who learned their trade denying that tobacco was bad for you and caused cancer. The exact same people.

I do think there should be some corrective measures taken to prevent these people from lying to the public, im not sure how though.

Its also important to note that cap & trade policies are not coming from environmentalists - if you watch the video these policies were invented by people at goldman sachs and others. In other words it is the same people who fucked the economy but walked away with billions who are now looking to consolidate the fucking of the planet and likewise walk away with billions.

Cap & Trade is not a policy originating in the environmental movement, i know some of those people begrudgingly accept it as "better than nothing", and "at least they are talking about" sort of nonsense. But cap & trade comes from politicians, economists, bankers, etc... it does not come from enviros. That is a myth.

Andrew

__________________
“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Focus money on renewable energy sources, rather than line the pockets of con artists.

Here's an inconvenient truth for you - long before AlGore made his movie about climate change, he formed a company to sell carbon credits. The credits he purchases to "offset" his extravagant personal energy consumption at home? You guessed it - he buys them from his company.

Watch the video, Annie has some clever alternatives to cap & trade.

Andrew

__________________
“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Agreed - Cap and Trade is about money and control over the economy. It's a politically palatable way to seize what could not be taken openly.

Matt

I agree with this wholeheartedly.

Also, if there is a tax for emitting carbon that money should be used to subsidize people for the inevitable era of significantly higher energy costs while the new infrastructure is deployed. It should not be used to line the pockets of people like Al Gore.

Andrew

__________________
“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Who do you imagine would be collecting these funds and then redistributing them? Congressmen.

cap-n-tax is not intended to have any environmental impact.

for what its intended to do, it will work great.

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Socialism doesn't create a rising tide that lifts all boats. It drains the lake and teaches the boat riders not to help themselves by rowing.

Jesus loves you, allah wants you dead

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."

Ayn Rand

The whole global warming and cap-n-trade is just a way to punish developed nations like the US, and to push money and jobs to less developed countries.

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"You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity."

cap and trade is a scam invented in wall street......

I wonder why it is so difficult to kill it.........

the world needs a carbon tax as an interim measure.

no other measure is as effective as carbon tax to clean up some of the mess.......