NEOAVATARA

When will the current evironmental movement realize that their policy toward climate change is an abject failure?

I am noncommittal on global warming.  I think there is a lot of proof that man made global warming is possible, but not definitive.  However, I am absolute believer that there is no reason we shouldn’t cut our carbon dioxide emissions as much as we can.  I consider CO2 a pollutant, regardless of its effects of global temperatures. So on cutting emissions, I do side with the green movement.

That said, the current policy of CO2 emission cuts is a total failure.  For the past two decades, leaders from across the globe, largely from Europe, has pushed for caps on emission.  The United States has been very slow to adopt this, both under the Clinton and Bush administrations. For example, the Kyoto protocol was rejected in a Democratically held Senate 98-0 late in Clinton’s presidency.  Obama was able to coax a bill through the House this year on Cap-and-Trade, but that too appears to be dead in the Senate without major revisions.

The real reason that this current thinking on global warming is a failure is India and China.  Both countries have resoundly rejected any caps on emissions.  India made that clear this weekend, repeatedly pointing out the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that they would not accept any emission cuts in the near future, during her visit to the country.

China has taken a more militant view.  They regard the current provisions in Cap-and-Trade illegal under World Trade Organization by-laws.  For example, the law would allow the U.S. to impose environmental taxes on products produced from high emission countries, i.e. China.  That is a nonstarter, and China would almost certainly win in any WTO arbitration.

There are two choices on global warming.  One is the growing feeling among the ultraleft that the West, including the United States, polluted the planet and thus should pay for cleaning it up. Commerce Seccretary Gary Locke went so far to say that we should pay for it ourselves:

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said something amazing—U.S. consumers should pay for part of Chinese greenhouse-gas emissions. From Reuters:

“It’s important that those who consume the products being made all around the world to the benefit of America — and it’s our own consumption activity that’s causing the emission of greenhouse gases, then quite frankly Americans need to pay for that,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

The idea that rich-country consumers should pick up the tab for some of China’s industrial emissions has been gaining currency lately—but not from within the Obama administration. The argument is that many of China’s factories churn out cheap stuff for the West, not for domestic consumption, so those consumers are actually responsible for the emissions. China, of course, loves the idea.

Logical, but not reasonable.  First, the costs are enormous. Second, the huge advantage such costs would give countries like China in manufacturing would kill off our already laboring manufacturing sector.  We simply could not compete.

Here is the bigger problem:  Going forward, American and Europe simply don’t matter.  The pollution that we emitted (that is, America and Europe) in the last 200 years?  China and India will emit that in the next 50 years.  Actually, we could totally stop burning any fossil fuel today, and the planet will still continue to heat up, according to environmental groups own analysis.

Here is the final nail in the coffin:  China now emits more pollution than the U.S..  We no longer are the biggest polluter on earth.  And by 2020, India will pass us as well.

So does that mean I think we should give up?  No, absolutely not.

What I do believe is that the tactic currently used by the left has and will fail.  India and China, rightfully, do not want to pay a penalty for the pollution that the West has caused.  The vicious cycle of an argument, however, is that they quickly are becoming responsible for future pollution at a much greater rate than Europe and America.

I think we should totally change our view on this.  The only way to get India and China to reduce pollution is to give them technologies that will allow them to do so.  The only way those technologies will come to fruition is if the West, primarily America, invents them.

I have long been a huge proponent of huge tax cuts for green technologies.  I would reiterate my call for a complete removal of all taxes on green energy companies for the next 20 years.  You will see money and innovation pour into the industry.  It may take 5 or 10 years, but solutions will slowly come about.  Once they do, then we at least have the hope of curbing emission.

Liberals are fooling themselves if they think Kyoto, or any current worldwide protocol on emission standards, will work.  They have already failed…they just don’t want to face the reality.