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The reason stuff like this gets funded and is attractive for investors is that it provides a target for massive polluters to focus on with carbon credits and of
by jillesvangurp 4y ago
The reason stuff like this gets funded and is attractive for investors is that it provides a target for massive polluters to focus on with carbon credits and offsets. This is what allows them to continue to emit co2 at a massive scale and get away with it by paying off the damage they cause. They get to brag about planting a gazillion fancy high tech trees with some inflated statistics about carbon captured that offset their own emissions. At least on paper.
Whether or not this is effective, practical, works at all, etc. does not actually matter to these companies. It's the getting away with massive emissions part that makes this valuable to customers of this company. They get to destroy the planet, but now they wash their hands in innocence while burning some more coal, oil, gas, etc. Basically, schemes like this are form of creative bookkeeping where companies get to green wash their emission problem at a discount.
- merpnderp 4y agoThe obvious solution is a carbon tax, but you'll be called a right wing nut job if you promote that.
- fknorangesite 4y agoFunny; in Canada, supporting the carbon tax gets you called a left wing nutjob.
- mofreelumch 4y agoA lot of people in tge US don't really understand the political views they are espousing, or the histories surrounding those politics, nor do most americans have even the slightest understanding of the political process within their own country. You can forget about the vast majority of US commenters (even here on hacker news) having any knowledge of socialist/communist theory. I'd imagine that the initial commenter is actually unaware of left/right positions or their implications. (I could be quite wrong, but this seems to be the only sensible explanation for the GP)
- anticensor 4y agoBecause the US is out of the compass right wing when compared to any other country.
- wlesieutre 4y agoRight wing nut jobs are the most strongly opposed people to a carbon tax that I've ever met. At least in the US you're much more likely to be called a socialist. You'd think the political right would be for a market solution to global warming, but first they would have to concede that global warming exists, so they won't.
- gs17 4y ago> You'd think the political right would be for a market solution to global warming My experience is that they take "carbon tax" as only the literal interpretation and opposition to taxes and bureaucracy outweigh everything else, there's hardly a "market solution" in it. Fee and dividend should be more popular, but it gets ignored and eventually won't be enough.
- fknorangesite 4y ago> My experience is that they take "carbon tax" as only the literal interpretation and opposition to taxes and bureaucracy outweigh everything else, Yeah, and in Canada it's extra frustrating since it is a fee-and-dividend system, not a tax - but the Conservatives love to call it "carbon tax" in order to score easier political points. But like GP said: > first they would have to concede that global warming exists, so they won't.
- wlesieutre 4y agoAh you're right, I was thinking of cap and trade as the market solution, but they won't do that either for the same climate change denial reasons.