"we should always beware of people trying to push sociological solutions to technological problems"
I'd go along with that. I think ideas like carbon trading are clearly designed to subsidise poorer nations, without actually reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Someone eloquently described such trading systems as "carbon indulgences", in that it makes people feel better about the pollution they produce while actually doing precious little about it in real terms.
My main point is that arguing about global warming is a big waste of time, and we should concentrate on finding efficient, clean and sustainable ways to live as we want to.
Reducing the amount of CO2 is - strictly speaking - not the immediate goal of carbon trading, the goal is to keep the annual emissions below a certain threshold, and that part is what carbon trading clearly is designed to do. Carbon trading is also called cap-and-trade and the 'cap' part refers to the limitation in emissions. Since, due to the artificially enforced limitations, emissions become just another scarce commodity like wheat or oil, the same trade mechanisms can be applied to it.
I'd go along with that. I think ideas like carbon trading are clearly designed to subsidise poorer nations, without actually reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Someone eloquently described such trading systems as "carbon indulgences", in that it makes people feel better about the pollution they produce while actually doing precious little about it in real terms.
http://www.carbontradewatch.org/pubs/carbon_neutral_myth.pdf
My main point is that arguing about global warming is a big waste of time, and we should concentrate on finding efficient, clean and sustainable ways to live as we want to.