When Al Gore mentioned in his Noble Prize acceptance speech the need for taxing carbon (and not the system of "cap and charade" for corporations to sell our air!) while lowing payroll taxes he is highlighting a more general philosophy and public policy some call Green Tax Shifting, Geonomics, or Earthrights Democracy.

The idea is simple enough to put onto bumpers: Tax Waste, Not Work; Tax Bads, Not Goods; Tax Pollution, Not Production; Tax what we take, not what we make; Tax Human Entropy, Not Human Effort.  (Yes this last one may require a bit of research for some).

Green tax shifters believe that if we are to make real progress toward a sustainable planet, we must focus on our tax system.  The tax system is our economic DNA.  If we can change this by instituting the general philosophy of Earthrights Democracy and adopting specific tax reforms that Al Gore has been referring to, then we have a good shot at creating an ecologically viable planet for all.

Funny that Gore did not mention anything about cattle's current effect on the ecological crisis. Oh wait a minute his family owns a bunch of cattle farms and he wouldn't want to make enemies there.

Just food for thought.

I guess Al Gore's current campaign against global warming is nice, but it comes far too late.  Why didn't he say these things when he was in office and could have done something meaningful about them?  If he would have said these things when campaigning for president, I would not only have voted for him, I would have worked for his campaign.

Politicians often say good things once they're out of office.  For example, I remember LBJ saying that the Vietnam war was a mistake long after Richard Nixon was president.  It might assuage their guilt to publicly admit that they were wrong or should have taken some action while they had a chance, but it's relatively meaningless once they're out of office.  Al Gore is no hero of mine (for this and other reasons, like his conspicuous consumption).