The Dark Side Of Climate Change-'Already Too Late, Cap&Trade Is A Scam & Only The Few Will Survive'

[kpete]

The Dark Side of Climate Change: It's Already Too Late, Cap and Trade Is a Scam, and Only the Few Will Survive

By Alexander Zaitchik, AlterNet. Posted July 7, 2009.

Father of the Gaia Theory, James Lovelock says we can't stop climate change, but that humanity will continue in some smaller form.

The recent narrow passage of the Waxman-Markey energy bill, better known as cap-and-trade, marks halftime in Congress' first attempt to put a lid on national carbon emissions. The bill’s supporters ended the half on top in a squeaker -- 219 yeas to 212 nays. But it’s far from clear what this lead means, either for the bill or the climate. The legislation’s fate remains as uncertain as our own.

We can, however, be sure about one thing. Between now and the autumn Senate debate, cap-and-trade’s right-wing critics will escalate their all-cannons assault on the idea that climate change is real and demands a response. They will call "crap-and-tax" the mother of all scams, a poorly cloaked state power grab, and a major goose step down the road to eco-fascism. Given the demagogic hyperbole already on display, it can’t be long before some conservative howler warns that the bill's green facade shares hues with the Koran.

As the fight over cap-and-trade intensifies, human-driven climate change denialists like Rush Limbaugh and James Inhofe will draw the lion's share of the media spotlight reserved for the bill's critics. This is unfortunate. The real debate is not between the bill's supporters and the dead-ender climate clown club. It is between cap-and-trade’s supporters and its critics within the scientific and environmental activist communities. Groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have science if not politics on their side when they decry Waxman-Markey as an industry diluted half-measure with soft gums that falls far short of what is necessary to avoid cataclysmic climate change later this century.

“The giveaways and preferences in the bill will actually spur a new generation of nuclear and coal-fired power plants to the detriment of real energy solutions,” said Greenpeace in a statement the day before the House vote. “To support such a bill is to abandon the real leadership that is called for at this pivotal moment in history. We simply no longer have the time for legislation this weak.”

more:
http://www.alternet.org/environment/141081/the_dark_side_of_climate_change%3A_it%27s_already_too_late%2C_cap_and_trade_is_a_scam%2C_and_only_the_few_will_survive/

[InvisibleTouch]

1. "Only a few will survive"...

I think that's very likely true.

And it won't be the ones we think, the well-insulated rich in their big mansions. It'll be the ones who already know how to live off the land in harmony with nature.

[Sal Minella]

2. Yes. The rich will find out exactly how much their wealth is really worth.

[Birthmark]

4. And can shoot straight.

This is very likely going to be very, very ugly.

[elocs]

3. I think that if we are truly honest we could admit that it's all over but the shouting.

I don't see the world's big polluters (U.S., China, India) ever all getting together to seriously adopt measures that will stop or even slow climate change until it is very obviously too late. You cannot really blame the people of China and India for wanting the standard of living they have seen us have for decades, and in this country there are still millions of people who could care less as long as they have theirs now and their taxes do not go up. They do not give a damn about climate change or how it impacts future generations.

[omega minimo]

6. More killer storms might get their attention

[Gregorian]

5. When we can't even talk about the cause, how do we enact a solution?

Furthermore between denail of a problem and mis-identification of the causes, we are in yet further trouble of finding solutions.

And to make things worse, even those who fully understand the situation and it's causes will not make the changes required in order to effect change. Buying a Prius is not a solution. Screwing in a different kind of light bulb is not a solution. That ought to get some angry replies.

[HamdenRice]

7. Cap and trade worked exceptionally well for sulfur dioxide pollution

That seems to be the factor that critics of cap and trade over look -- namely, that it was spectacularly successful in reducing acid rain, even more successful than its proponents had projected.

There may be good arguments against it, but they need to contend with the systems successes in the past. Right now, I don't see the critics engaging with the historical success of the system, but instead making vague and often hysterical claims about it without much insight into how it works and has worked in the past.

[kenfrequed]

8. There are innumerable problems with it

The whining screeds of the right are meaningless and unintelligable.


The real problems are that the reductions are too low and the loopholes too broad when it comes to CO2 emissions and contributions.

Additionally the actors and creators of sulpher dioxide are far fewer and easier to track, being that they are primarily power plants and large scale factories.