4 ms·

Interesting, but how is this different from just issuing treasury bonds? I guess my question is, how does it relate to climate specifically? Is the difference j

Interesting, but how is this different from just issuing treasury bonds? I guess my question is, how does it relate to climate specifically? Is the difference just that we issue a crap ton of them now and only use the money to pay for climate related things? I guess the bigger question too is what do we spend them on? Is anyone aware of a feasible, “go to market” plan that could actually “fix” climate change if we had, say, 1 trillion dollars to spend on it? (Or whatever the number is)

provolone 8y ago
Doomsaying is frequently accompanied by monetary schemes.
danieltillett 8y ago
I go into more detail on my blog about why zero-coupon bonds. What do we spend it on? The first place is buying up all the fossil fuel and preventing it from being burnt. Paying off the owners of the fossil fuel is the essential step to removing the political opposition to doing something about climate change. Once that is tackled then we just have to scale out the technology we already have to generate energy that doesn't emit greenhouse gases.
- 2918273756663 8y ago
  This is seriously ridiculous. What you're suggesting is not only useless, but actively harmful. Your hubris and incapability to reason are astounding. I insistently suggest to you to think this through and issue a public retraction and apology of this craziness to help those less capable of critical thinking to understand that ideas like that are not a valid path towards a better future before they are accidentally implemented in naive good faith but to horrific results. Here's what will happen: - You and your buddies convince a bunch of speculators, corrupt politicians, and central bankers to convert public assets (namely confidence in an economic system with guns and logistics oil to back it up) into this massive zero-coupon bond, liquidating a huge fraction of that faith into runaway inflation as people realize whoever has the ability to start such a scheme is not someone you would trust for long-term survival. - Upon publication of the intent of this worldwide government entity (which doesn't actually exist as cohesive collective) to back such a plan, mineral rights holders are starstruck seeing dollar signs everywhere. You just started the next landgrab speculative bubble where everyone and their mother now begin a furious mania of transacting mineral deeds which skyrocket those prices across the board worldwide. - Next begins the phase of holdouts and regulatory capture of a world "war" in legislative, judicial, and executive battles where governments of all sizes and obscure claims to jurisdiction invent new laws, ruling precedents, and directives by force in their own self-interests to jam or lubricate the cogs of eminent domain while deed holders refuse to sell their reserves to prevent it from making it into the atmosphere, hoping for even greater payoff down the road. - Assuming your organization which (mis)manages this whole shitshow as the recipient of the bond funds is somehow able to buy up all fossil fuel reserves (which it won't), including deep currently unexplored and _currently_ unprofitable reserves of oil, natural gas, tar sands, shale, coal, you name it across a world of sovereign states that have no incentive to cooperate, then the next stage begins when prospectors edge further out into international waters for deep offshore drilling with essentially unlimited reserves that have never been surveyed due to the abundance of lower-hanging fruit. - So now you've paid off the people that caused the problem in the first place, gave an explicit promise of future bail outs to exacerbate the risk-seeking incentives of purveyors of hydrocarbon fuel, and set off a chain reaction of unlocking even more unlimited reserves of emissions, you pat yourself on the back that "wow, money sure is the answer to all the world's problem!" while unknownst to you an environmental "terrorist" group rightfully targets you for elimination.

provolone 8y ago

Doomsaying is frequently accompanied by monetary schemes.

danieltillett 8y ago

I go into more detail on my blog about why zero-coupon bonds. What do we spend it on? The first place is buying up all the fossil fuel and preventing it from being burnt. Paying off the owners of the fossil fuel is the essential step to removing the political opposition to doing something about climate change. Once that is tackled then we just have to scale out the technology we already have to generate energy that doesn't emit greenhouse gases.

2918273756663 8y ago
This is seriously ridiculous. What you're suggesting is not only useless, but actively harmful. Your hubris and incapability to reason are astounding. I insistently suggest to you to think this through and issue a public retraction and apology of this craziness to help those less capable of critical thinking to understand that ideas like that are not a valid path towards a better future before they are accidentally implemented in naive good faith but to horrific results. Here's what will happen: - You and your buddies convince a bunch of speculators, corrupt politicians, and central bankers to convert public assets (namely confidence in an economic system with guns and logistics oil to back it up) into this massive zero-coupon bond, liquidating a huge fraction of that faith into runaway inflation as people realize whoever has the ability to start such a scheme is not someone you would trust for long-term survival. - Upon publication of the intent of this worldwide government entity (which doesn't actually exist as cohesive collective) to back such a plan, mineral rights holders are starstruck seeing dollar signs everywhere. You just started the next landgrab speculative bubble where everyone and their mother now begin a furious mania of transacting mineral deeds which skyrocket those prices across the board worldwide. - Next begins the phase of holdouts and regulatory capture of a world "war" in legislative, judicial, and executive battles where governments of all sizes and obscure claims to jurisdiction invent new laws, ruling precedents, and directives by force in their own self-interests to jam or lubricate the cogs of eminent domain while deed holders refuse to sell their reserves to prevent it from making it into the atmosphere, hoping for even greater payoff down the road. - Assuming your organization which (mis)manages this whole shitshow as the recipient of the bond funds is somehow able to buy up all fossil fuel reserves (which it won't), including deep currently unexplored and _currently_ unprofitable reserves of oil, natural gas, tar sands, shale, coal, you name it across a world of sovereign states that have no incentive to cooperate, then the next stage begins when prospectors edge further out into international waters for deep offshore drilling with essentially unlimited reserves that have never been surveyed due to the abundance of lower-hanging fruit. - So now you've paid off the people that caused the problem in the first place, gave an explicit promise of future bail outs to exacerbate the risk-seeking incentives of purveyors of hydrocarbon fuel, and set off a chain reaction of unlocking even more unlimited reserves of emissions, you pat yourself on the back that "wow, money sure is the answer to all the world's problem!" while unknownst to you an environmental "terrorist" group rightfully targets you for elimination.