Some subscribers to Phys-L might be interested in a recent post
"Would a Carbon Tax Alone Save Life on Planet Earth? Probably Not:
Overpopulation Must Also Be Addressed [Hake (2013)]. The abstract
reads:
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ABSTRACT (CAPS in quotes are mine): As I pointed out in a post "Would
a Carbon Tax Save Life on Planet Earth?" [Hake (2013a)] at
<http://yhoo.it/16ECfUn>, Hansen & Romm (2013) at
<http://bit.ly/12djtSf> wrote:
"We must have a simple, honest, across-the-board carbon fee COLLECTED
FROM THE FOSSIL FUEL COMPANIES AT THE SMALL NUMBER OF DOMESTIC MINES
AND PORTS OF ENTRY. All of that money should be distributed to the
public -100 percent of it - with equal amounts going to all legal
residents."
Art Hobson (2013a) in an OpEd "Our planet passes a climate benchmark"
at <http://bit.ly/19tBwGD> made a similar point but did not indicate,
as did Hansen & Romm, that the carbon fee should be "collected from
the fossil fuel companies at the small number of domestic mines and
ports of entry."
"Here I want to comment on the FIRST OF TWO OMISSIONS in your
otherwise excellent and comprehensive presentation. . . . . The 'stop
emissions' is right on but unrealistic. As long as there are humans
on earth, emissions of CO2 will continue at some level. It seems to
me to be more realistic to say that: 'We must embark on a long-term
program of continually reducing the annual number of tons per year of
greenhouse gases that are released world-wide into the Earth's
atmosphere.' . . . . [To do this] we have to STOP GLOBAL POPULATION
GROWTH AND THEN REDUCE THE SIZE OF THE GLOBAL POPULATION TO SOME
"SUSTAINABLE" LEVEL. And in a later post Bartlett (2013b) at
<http://bit.ly/11Og32G> stated: "You did state that the solution is
to put a tax on carbon. . . . . . The next question that needs to be
addressed is: Given the real world in which we live, WHAT IS THE
PROBABILITY THAT ON ANY USEFUL TIME SCALE WE CAN ACHIEVE THE GOAL . .
. .. OF STOPPING CARBON EMISSIONS BY MEANS OF . . . . . . .PUTTING A
TAX ON CARBON?"
Bartlett (2013c) discussed the SECOND OMISSION in a post "Exporting
U.S. Fossil Fuels" at <http://bit.ly/14sPuBM>, stating: "Art and most
of the environmentalists who strongly advocate the reduction of U.S.
carbon emissions omit one important point. The U.S. exports a
significant fraction of the coal that it mines. Thus U.S. coal is
burned in other countries where it makes about the same contribution
to global warming as it would have if it had been burned in the U.S."
*Hobson (2013a) may have "missed a point," but Hansen & Romm (2013) did not!*
As indicated above they, unlike Hobson, specified that "the carbon
fee should be collected from the fossil fuel companies AT THE SMALL
NUMBER OF DOMESTIC MINES and ports of entry." Thus Hansen & Romm's
carbon tax would discourage coal mining in the U.S. regardless of
whether or not U.S. coal is shipped out of the U.S.
Hobson, in a response at <http://bit.ly/124gGEU> appeared to be
unaware of Hansen & Romm (2013) and failed to make the above
argument. But Hobson agreed with Bartlett that THE OVERPOPULATION
PROBLEM NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH THE IMPOSITION OF A
CARBON TAX. I also agree with Bartlett - see e.g. "L.A. Times
Population Report: Beyond 7 Billion - Fighting the Last War?" [Hake
(2012)] online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at <http://bit.ly/TeOpJj>.
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"If any fraction, large or small, of the observed global warming
Can be attributed to the actions of humans,
Then this is positive proof that the human population,
Living as we do,
Has exceeded the carrying capacity of the Earth."
- Al Bartlett (2013a)
REFERENCES [URL's shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on 27 June 2013.]
Hake, R.R. 2013. "Would a Carbon Tax Alone Save Life on Planet Earth?
Probably Not: Overpopulation Must Also Be Addressed." Online on the
OPEN! Net-Gold archives at <http://yhoo.it/1aRLIqF>. Post of 27 Jun
2013 14:55:33-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to
the complete post are being distributed to various discussion lists
and are also on my blog "Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/19zyUHo>
with a provision for comments.