I couldn't agree more.
HOWEVER, as laudable as the idea is on paper the reality is that the controlling elite will use any wealth redistribution to take more money from the middle/working classes and redistribute much of it to their own already full coffers. Governments and their elected officials, appointed officials and agencies largely serve the monied elite - look at the FDA for a glaring example among many. Regardless of all the lip service about serving the people's best interests, when it comes down to it they serve the monied interests of their masters first and foremost.
People may laugh behind their blinders at Ryan's rants on the subject, but they do so at their own ignorant peril. Although I may not agree with Ryan's debating style oftentimes, he knows more about this subject than most. I would suggest that people would be better served by wiping the smirks off their faces when it comes to carbon taxes and cap and trades schemes and the like and do their homework to see what the real agenda is. It decidedly is NOT taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor - it is taking money from the working and middle class, perhaps giving a relative pittance to the poor, and giving your and my money to those who already have most of the money. In the process, we also lose even more freedom with yet more government/global control over our lives.
If you want a good analogy, think about foreign aid - either regular aid or disaster aid. Too much of the time our money, foreign food and other supplies end up in the hands of corrupt rulers in control and their cronies. The same would be true on a vast scale with carbon tax/cap schemes. Putting wealth redistribution in the hands of global powers who are controlled by the global elite would be akin to hiring Haliburtion to distribute potable water and food to third world countries. Yeah, you would see plenty of photo-ops pieces of the poor getting water and food. What you would not see would be Halliburton's bank vaults filling up due to charging robber-baron prices for the aid and their services.
Manmade global warming is a smoke-screen to begin with. Global warming, as has been thoroughly demonstrated, is cyclical and to a very large extent there is little we can do about it. Man may contribute to it, but man's contributions are small in comparison to the natural cycle. The issue should be pollution and all the toxins we are spewing into our environment. The answer to that over-reaching problem is not to allow interests which have been identified as "clean" to sell credits to those who have been deemed "dirty". Even if you could trust the certifications, that just enriches one group and allows the polluters to keep on polluting.
I have studied the science, and while I am not saying for one minute that man does not contribute to global warming, just saying that global warming is about much more than man's contributions. Thus has it been for millions of years. If I strike a match, that contributes to global warming. Likewise, so does carbon emissions. But what is the overall impact?
http://www.tbyil.com/Global_Warming.htm
Corporate greed surely comes into play, especially when it comes to all the toxins that are being allowed and spewed into our environment. But the solutions being put forward won't end corporate greed, they will just play into it and further enrich the greedy corporations and the global elite who own and control them. To think otherwise is to not realize who really controls the wealth, politics, and resources of this planet. It isn't you or me and it won't be so long as we try to solve problems with politicians and government bodies who have sold their souls to the monied elite.
Did you look at the article I linked to?
You could wipe humans entirely off the face of the earth and there would still be natural, cyclical global warming. There is a lot of talk about melting ice caps and sea levels rising, but in actuality those rises have been tiny in terms of historical fluctuations. From 1900 until now, sea levels have risen about 20 cm or so. However, over the past 8000 years, sea levels have risen over 15 meters. Going way back in time, over the past 500 plus million years sea levels have been over 100 meters higher on average.
See: http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1700775#i
Man may be contributing to global warming, but it is far from the single cause of global warming, What is indisputable, and what should therefore be the target in my opinion, is the man made and man caused toxins. Those represent a much bigger and continued threat to life in my opinion. And the solution is not to dream up a scheme that rewards rich companies who sell their "clean" credits and let polluters keep on spewing and spilling toxins.
You could wipe humans entirely off the face of the earth and there would still be natural, cyclical global warming.
This is true to an extent. Earth has always has cyclical warming and cooling trends, but the majority of this has been due to volcanic activity, which spews out a lot of global warming gases. In fact at times in history more than all the gases that man has produced. But we also have to keep in mind that Earth is not near as geologically active as it was millions of years ago. So natural contribution to global warming has declined drastically even with other factors such as naturally rotting vegetation and fires.
Another factor where mankind has made a big difference on global warming is the destruction of our forests worldwide from cutting, burning and indirectly from acid rain. Less plants, less CO2 absorption. In the past there was cycling because nature would generate CO2 and the plants would absorb the CO2, so there was a balance. Mankind had shifted this balance and has instead created a downward slide. If people don't get out their denial and wake up to reality mankind will simply destroy itself.
Some very good points. Deforestation is a huge concern as far as I am concerned, especially deforestation of the rain forests - which have aptly been referred to as the earth's natural lungs and pharmacies. I would also go so far as to label rain forests and other forests and plants as part of our natural lymphatic system and livers. In addition to processing CO2 and producing oxygen, plants also trap and process toxins.
Though the earth is less geologically active than in past eras - and one would expect a lessening over time - I suspect that the earth still has some significant future events and activities in store for us. A good indication of that is the volcanic actiitivies in just the past several centuries to see that - a mere blink of an eye compared to the billions of years the planet has been around.
Meanwhile, the Yellowstone super volcano lurks, waiting for its next catastrophic eruption. And somewhere down the line we are due for another shift of the earth's axis - talk about your global catastrophy and extinction event! Then there are astroid/meteor/comet impacts . . . we might be ready to handle those, given enough time and preparation, but it is hard to see us able to control axis shifts and super volcanoes.
However, taking first things first, we need to get past the poisoning of ourselves and our planet and take a look at what the real threats are. I don't see manmade global warming in and of itself to be one, but I surely do see manmade poisoning to be.
Looking back geologically we find that CO2 levels have been as much as ten times greater at times than they are now. We also see periods of much, much greater warming and cooling - even in relatively recent times of just thousands of years. Historically, CO2 levels have only correlated slightly with warming, if at all. For an interesting article/study, see:
http://biocab.org/carbon_dioxide_geological_timescale.html
Given the increased toxins we have spewed into our environment (some of which have half lives of 50,000 years or more), increased manmade radiation in all forms, and the deforestation I would say that we may pollute ourselves off the planet faster than we will ever warm ourselves to death.
Fix the pollution problem, and you will fix the global warming problem as well. Win/Win for the planet, and us humans.
We need to fix the pollution problem alright, but doing so would not fix global warming - it would only fix the small part of global warming that is caused by man. Forget what you have been sold on by the maim-stream media. They are the same folks (agents) who tell you that vaccines and drugs are good for you and that natural healing, herbs and vitamins and such are not. The same ones who tell you that the Gulf is safe again and would serve you up a plate of Corexit shrimp.
The blindered masses have been sold on the bogus scare of man-made global warming by those who seek to use it as a scheme to take even more wealth and control - and boy have the masses and greenies bought into it. The real danger is toxins, but it would be extremely impolitique to admit that inconvenient truth it would be hard to try to profit on a cap and trade type scheme for toxic pollution. That would focus attention on the real problem. Better by far to scheme to increase profits while diverting attention to global warming.
Toxins are our number one enironmental threat and we could do something about them. On the other hand, if you eliminated every human on the planet tomorrow, there would still be global warming.
One thing we can agree on - there certainly is much that we can do as individuals to decrease our negative imprint on the planet. We are not Gods of the world, just privileged guests who happen to have occupied the top rung on the food chain for a mere geological blink of the eye. As such, we should behave as considerate guests and if we want to think of ourselves in terms of superiority, then we should use our supposed superiority to be conscientious stewards for the planet instead of unthinking ruiners.
I also look to who benefits from the denial of climate change and global warming, and that is very noticeably the big polluters, the multi-national corporations, governments that are beholding to these corporations, and are fed by the corporations.
Look at who benefits from denial of toxins and you will see the same list. Cleaning up toxins involves a lot more than reducing carbon emissions. And there is no easy scheme to profit from toxins reduction. In actuality, a lot of the multi-nationals and governments are buying into carbon reduction - because it provides with a scheme to increase their control and wealth. Plus, many of the big toxic polluters are the same ones who will be certified as acceptable polluters when it comes to global warming and thus will not only get to keep up their toxic pollution but be rewarded for it by selling off their credits for being good global warming citizens. Barf!
Many of us who deny man-made climate change and global warming - at least deny it to anywhere near the extent it has been portrayed - having nothing to gain from it other than telling the truth and preventing further erosion of our money and our freedoms to those who already have far more power and wealth than they deserve.