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Re: [Phys-L] Would a Carbon Tax Save Life on Planet Earth?



"must"?

Many of our students have parents that have lost their jobs during this severe economic downturn. Many are facing huge student loans and are worrying about future employment. If we are going to reach them we can't be pedantic geeks - we have to engage them at their level and make scientific concerns relevant to the lives they live. They are the ones who have to decide the relative importance of a few degrees of warming versus economic sacrifice.

Bob at PC
________________________________________
From: Phys-l [phys-l-bounces@phys-l.org] on behalf of Shahram Mostarshed [smostarshed@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 3:10 AM
To: Phys-L@phys-l.org
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Would a Carbon Tax Save Life on Planet Earth?

One of the key issues is students learning about carbon mitigation
strategies, and the fact that economic policies must be subservient to
this goal.

SM

From: andre adler
Sent: 6/4/2013 4:50 PM
To: Phys-L@phys-l.org
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Would a Carbon Tax Save Life on Planet Earth?
But what does carbon taxes have to do with learning physics?

Teach the physics of climate change..

Don't teach political biases, left nor right and carbon taxes is an
economic and political issue.

And teaching and learning physics is hard enough.
On Jun 4, 2013 7:32 PM, "brian whatcott" <betwys1@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Let's see if I can spell this out:
Analytical meteorology is considered a physics subject.
And here were are with a projection that global climate change will lead
to uniform sea level rise World-wide:
a projection that, interestingly, is almost certainly wrong. But the only
basis for debating this projection is by the underlying physics. In a
comparable development from some years ago, it was considered that nuclear
power generation was just too likely to lead to widespread illness and
death, in respect to Three Mile Island, and later, Fukushima (sp?), a
projection that interestingly, was also almost certainly wrong. Here again,
the only rational basis for debate is the underlying physics.

Do you want students to be in a position to make rational choices in these
long-term issues? Or not?

Brian Whatcott
Altus OK


On 6/4/2013 1:36 PM, Andre Adler wrote:

Pardon my acronyms but WTF does this have to do with physics education
and learning?


On Jun 4, 2013, at 2:07 PM, brian whatcott <betwys1@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 6/3/2013 7:14 PM, marx@phy.ilstu.edu wrote:

Now, we finally get to the real purpose of carbon caps and taxes... it's
all about wealth redistribution, whether it be to third world nations or
for so-called "social justice."

Of course, these fees would be passed on to customers at the gas pumps
and
their other energy purchases. This makes everything more expensive for
everyone - rich or poor - and further damages the economy. A poor
economy
hurts the poor and middle class the most - regardless of the wealth
redistribution.

Profit margins for oil companies are between 3 and 9 %, which is
perfectly
acceptable. Profit margins for software and pharmaceutical companies
are
typically the highest among all industries.


Interesting! I think of carbon tax as a way of avoiding or at least
minimizing the "Tragedy of the Commons"

Would that kind of avoidance count as "social justice"? Not sure. Does
limiting a fishery count as social justice? Perhaps....for the fish
possibly. The Atlantic cod; the whale (but that's no fish!)

Brian Whatcott
Altus OK
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