Comments geoark has made

Cap & Charade

Please see www.carbontax.org/ for good information on why a direct carbon tax is five times more effective than any "cap & charade" schemes.

cha⋅rade:  3. a blatant pretense or deception, esp. something so full of pretense as to be a travesty.

Also, if you look who funds some of the "environmental" groups you will understand that they are not representing environmental interests in these "deals".  

GeoArk
Save your job, save your business, save your planet: Tax Waste, Not Work.
On Business/enviro alliance unveils climate plan, attracts critics posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago 4 Responses

Cap and Trade

Slight oops!  The Study on the Carban Tax vs. Cap and Trade was done by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).  See:  http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/89xx/doc8934/02-12-Carbon.pdf

Tax Waste, Not Work and Create a Sustainable FutureOn Democratic party platform outlines green goals posted 1 year, 3 months ago 2 Responses

Two questions

I see it as discouraging that 54 Senators support a Cap and Trade (I call it Cap and Charade) system.

Has the Senator read the Congressional Budget Report that states: "available research suggests that in the near term, the net benefits (benefits minus costs) of a tax could be roughly five times greater than the net benefits of an inflexible cap.2 Put another way, a given long-term emission-reduction target could be met by a tax at a fraction of the cost of an inflexible cap-and-trade program."
www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=8934

Wake up folks.  Look into the Green Tax Shift that has been endorsed by 2,500 economists including eight Nobel laureates. Please check out The Carbon Tax Center www.carbontax.org/ then tell two people and pass it on.

Also, of the 171 billion dollars proposed for transit how much is for the development of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT)? [see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Rapid_Transit ]

If the US doesn't invest in PRT, we will have to buy it from other countries more advanced than ours.  What percentage of the 171 billion would be put into the research and development of PRT systems?
On Maryland Senator pushes for better transit, efficiency posted 1 year, 5 months ago 3 Responses

On staying positive

I believe staying positive and supporting each other will continue to be a critical priority for environmentally concerned citizens as we join together to develop a sustainable planet.

Things have been very dark during the last few years, as resource depleting fossil fuel oligarchs had taken over our government.  Over many years as an environmental activist I have turned to meditation and other forms of personal development.  More recently, however, I have developed a growing "audacity of hope" due to the many new ideas that are forming.

Much of my hope centers on the growing emergence of new fields of research such as Ecological Economics.  A couple of days ago a leading Ecological Economist, Robert Costanza, spoke at a nearby University on the importance of "true costing" our economic system so that everyone will participate in converting to resource conserving technologies that pollute less.

We can "true cost" or economic system by removing taxes on labor while charging user fees for extracting minerals and pollution.  Revenue raised could be put into Earth Trust funds to pay for public services, individual safety net accounts, and to restore and protect wildlife habitat.  In this way the unearned increment (or windfall profit) of diminishing scarce resources such as oil can be returned to the public instead of into the pockets of people who already have billions of dollars.

Meanwhile I am very excited about the different kinds of emerging technologies that a "true-cost" economic system will catalyze.  There are many wonderful resource conserving and clean energy producing technologies waiting for the true cost of oil and coal to hit us. This includes floating windmills (Magenn), Mag -Lev windmills in China (both large and small), plasma gasification (to safely eliminate the toxic garbage we produce), and a potential quantum leap in developing transportation technologies such as the PRT (personal rapid transit).  

We certainly have a long way to go before humans can say we have created a sustainable planet, but I do have hope.

GeoArk
Arkansas
On Umbra on staying positive posted 1 year, 9 months ago 10 Responses

Work for the Green Tax Shift

I have no doubt that we humans can overcome the prospects of climate change, peak oil, and other looming disasters...but only if we true-cost the environment.  CAFE standards don't do this and are, thus, a distraction.  

We need to clamor for a complete overhaul of our tax system to remove taxes on labor and the fruits of labor and to charge user fees on all natural resources -- including the pollution of our atmosphere.  

Join the Green Tax Shift movement NOW!
Tax Waste, Not Work
Tax Human Entropy, Not Human Effort
On U.S. House approves toned-down energy bill, Bush to sign it tomorrow posted 1 year, 11 months ago 12 Responses

Windfall Profits

The term "Windfall Profit" was mentioned several times in Hillary's energy plan.

Most people inherently seem to know that something is not right when someone holds a natural resource until it becomes scarce and then makes a "killing" with a sale when not a finger of work was lifted in the process.

Certainly, when a company performs the true work of finding, pumping, processing oil or other natural resources should be richly rewarded -- and they are.  But the profit that comes from monopolizing a natural resource can be seen as an "unearned increment".  

Why not go all out and begin a conversion to an economic system that is not only good for business and labor, but also for the environment.  I call this "Sustainanomics" and others call it Earthrights Democracy.  It is also known as the Green Tax Shift.

Let us gradually implement a use fee on ALL natural resources that would include extracted mineral, the pollution of our land, air, and water, and, very importantly, the exclusive use of site locations.  Other natural resources that are not fully collected are the broadcast spectrums for communication.  (These should be 100% auctioned off too).

As all these natural resource "rents" are collected, we could reduce and eliminate all the taxes that suppress our economy including taxes on wages, income, business investment, sales, and commerce.  And, don't worry, corporations will pay their fair share in this system of Sustainanomics if they pay the user fees on all the natural resources they control and make windfall profits on.  When you go to Wal-Mart you must pay for what you take.  When you go to Earth-Mart you, too, should pay for what you take!

Of course, or complete fairness, everyone should receive an equal "Earth Inheritance" paid monthly in the form of retirement, health savings, education, food, shelter, and energy efficiency accounts.

My slogan for this is 80/80 by 2020.  Eighty percent of our planet's taxes should be Green Shifted by the year 2020.  We don't need to wait until 2050 to do this.

By the way, cap and trade systems can be easily manipulated even with an auctioning system (which I support).  So let's push for a Carbon Tax for everyone where taxes are lowered on work and production.  With Sustainanomics, we can have full employment -- while we produce renewable energy technologies such as the Magenn Wind Rotor.

Sorry to be so long winded.  Perhaps I should also pay a windfall tax. ;)
GeoArkOn The full text of Clinton's plan posted 2 years ago 18 Responses

Geo-economic Sense

Let's take the case of oil consumption.  Suppose with education and advertising we could motivate one-half of our population to reduce their oil consumption by one-half.  (This is a stretch).  What will happen to the price of oil?  With reduced demand, the price will go down and the Humvee drivers who have no commitment will have a field day and there will be no overall reduction or conservation of oil.  Conclusion: Volunteerism by itself will not work.

Important point: Volunteerism is CRITICAL in order to reach the critical mass of VOTERS that will - we hope - understand and enact what must be done (keep reading!).

If we do nothing this will (given global warming, peak oil, international relations) lead to major crisis, heavy-duty police action, dictatorship, loss of freedom and heavy a cost to society.  This second "ism", "do-nothingism", leads to "crisis-ism."

A THIRD WAY is to gradually introduce a user fee on oil (oil consumers "use" clean air, etc.) and provide an equal citizen's dividend (an Earth Inheritance) to all via the social security system.  We also need to directly tax carbon pollution.  

Also, we should use these revenues to remove taxes on labor and capital investment to ensure full employment as our society converts to resource conservation based technological economy.  Another part of these public revenues, besides paying for governmental community services should go to buying and protecting wild natural habitat. With the user fee and citizen dividend incentives, our society will very quickly reach the low-balled carbon goals our politicians are suggestion for 2050 and beyond (way too late!).

This third way is called incentivism.  This third way will be good for business (think wind energy production), good for social and economic justice, AND be good for the environment.  This third way is, probably, the only one that will truly work before we destroy ourselves.

My plea: Please go to web sites that encourage the "Green Tax Shift", the "Environmental Tax Shift", "Incentive Taxation" etc. and support them! And read the book "Tax Waste, Not Work".

www.taxshift.org On Tidwell responds to scientists responding to Tidwell posted 2 years, 2 months ago 28 Responses

Global Warming

This latest report seems pretty scary.  The sad thing is that if I seriously reduce my use of fossil fuels along with, say, half the country, the price will go down and the other half that doesn't conserve will use that much more!

There is a better solution.  We need to restructure our tax system.  Tax waste and pollution, not work and production.

Al Gore said we should reduce payroll taxes and make up the difference with taxes on carbon.  With this pollution revenue we could also set up Environmental Trust Funds (like in Alaska) that would provide an environmental citizen's dividend paid into personal social security retirement, health, education and conservation accounts.  This would help soften the blow of rising fuel costs to the middle class and low-income folks.

GeoArkOn We Hear Mars Is Nice This Time of Year posted 2 years, 8 months ago 7 Responses