15 October 2018
Superfluous and Naturally Occurring Global Warming
No one should be arguing that the earth’s climate has not
changed in the past billions of years for reasons over which we have never had
any control. The problem is that only in
the last 10,000-40,000 years have intelligent human beings tried to live on
this planet and created a civilization that depends on certain norms of
habitability, including weather, temperature, water access, etc.
The resources of the energy industry can better be devoted
to finding and implementing a solution to the impending disastrous destruction
of the welcoming condition of the planet for human life. The solution will
address not only the superfluous changes that human activity is causing to our
environment, but also any naturally-occurring deteriorations in the planet’s
habitability. The energy industry should
focus on this strategy rather than obstinately disclaim responsibility for the likely
underlying baseline shifts in the earth’s climate conditions. Like diverting a threatening comet strike, it
is within our means and theirs to solve this problem.
Indeed, the full cost of our use of the energy resources of
the earth has not ever been built into its pricing. Just like the clean-up of plastic products
that are now littering our oceans and lands, there is an added expense that
should be covered in the original payment for the use of hydro carbon fuels. For correcting the possible legacy
damage already done in the past, a more general tax will need to be levied on the
world’s populations, in proportion to their levels of benefit.
05 October 2018
Global Environment Funding
We must find a way to pay the cost of saving the global
environment in order to preserve a livable planet. One way to do this is to finance a trust that
will compensate those who sacrifice developing commercially viable uses of
their physicaresources (land, petroleum deposits, coal deposits, other sources of
energy, etc.). The Trust might lend, at
below-market rates, to developers and obtain repayments based on the value of
alternative uses to which they are subsequently put. The Trust would initially be funded with a
global tax based on the GDP of all countries.
How each country finances the payment will be determined by
each of them; of course, it would behoove them to avoid an inflationary spurt
in liquidity. So there will have to be a real cost to
their citizens and enterprises. Nevertheless,
we must admit that saving the planet is a global problem, and everyone, as well as
their progeny, will benefit if we continue to be able to live on it.
