Comments on: Beyond Carbon Legislation: Energy Transition http://www.getreallist.com/beyond-carbon-legislation-energy-transition.html Deal With Reality or It Will Deal With You Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:09:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Neil http://www.getreallist.com/beyond-carbon-legislation-energy-transition.html/comment-page-1#comment-2453 Neil Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:38:22 +0000 http://www.getreallist.com/?p=1679#comment-2453 I appreciate the sentiments and indeed reflect as one who was feeling down trodden. Your comments to business as the key driver is a truth, particularly of the US. Standing in Copenhagen, the cries of business rang an almost deafening sound of sadness in my heart. In the space of being a human first and an American second, the talk of business ("protecting our nation, and green jobs for all") was belittling to say the least. Have we no tact? Climate crisis? No. This is a a question for humanity. Do we want to be around this planet for 100 yrs more or not? This brings me to my point of inquiry. I do not believe we have the luxury of simply giving up on the pursuit of a carbon tax. Because if we do not, we are bound to stay small in growing any green renewable future. The donkey moves with both carrots and sticks. To use only one is to walk a crooked road. Bruegel outlined this beautify in a paper called "Cold Start for the Green Innovation Machine." I think we can learn a lot from this. http://tinyurl.com/greenInnovation And while a push towards renewables is important, to only focus on this may simply increase the overall energy pie and do nothing to our emissions. If we are truly planning to live on this planet, our carbon footprint is but one measure towards making pathways that are truly sustainable. More complex energy regimes have benefits, but they also have gargantuan entropy side effects. Currently, our global biosphere is kind enough to give us carbon as a measure to work with. In the future, we many not be so lucky. We must remember we are human and we must create plans that will reflect this globally. I appreciate the sentiments and indeed reflect as one who was feeling down trodden. Your comments to business as the key driver is a truth, particularly of the US. Standing in Copenhagen, the cries of business rang an almost deafening sound of sadness in my heart. In the space of being a human first and an American second, the talk of business (“protecting our nation, and green jobs for all”) was belittling to say the least. Have we no tact? Climate crisis? No. This is a a question for humanity. Do we want to be around this planet for 100 yrs more or not?

This brings me to my point of inquiry. I do not believe we have the luxury of simply giving up on the pursuit of a carbon tax. Because if we do not, we are bound to stay small in growing any green renewable future. The donkey moves with both carrots and sticks. To use only one is to walk a crooked road. Bruegel outlined this beautify in a paper called “Cold Start for the Green Innovation Machine.” I think we can learn a lot from this. http://tinyurl.com/greenInnovation

And while a push towards renewables is important, to only focus on this may simply increase the overall energy pie and do nothing to our emissions. If we are truly planning to live on this planet, our carbon footprint is but one measure towards making pathways that are truly sustainable. More complex energy regimes have benefits, but they also have gargantuan entropy side effects. Currently, our global biosphere is kind enough to give us carbon as a measure to work with. In the future, we many not be so lucky. We must remember we are human and we must create plans that will reflect this globally.

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