CARBON TAX. FACING THE WRONG WAY.

Carbon Tax Facts

The South African Carbon Tax regime kicked off in June 2019.

The supposed reason for the imposition of the carbon tax is to tackle global warming.

Fact. Not all scientists agree that high Carbon Dioxide levels cause global warming.

Fact. In the past, the earth was subjected to extreme high temperatures, at times when motor cars were not in use or in very limited use.

Fact. Newspapers from more than 100 years ago record heatwaves so intense that horses and many human beings actually died.

Fact. Credible scientists are saying that CO2 levels worldwide are in fact decreasing.

They also state that CO2 levels at high levels are necessary to sustain plant and animal life.

CO2 levels are around 400 parts per million of air, at present. Scientists like Patrick Moore aver that levels of CO2 at 1000 parts per million are quite ideal. However, they aver further that unfortunately, the earth has not sufficient fossil fuel reserves to reach that optimal level of CO2.

Patrick Moore in fact advocates the use of solar energy to burn calcium deposits in the rocks of the earth, to release higher levels of CO2, which are good for plant and animal life.

Fact: Roger Pielke Jr. is a scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder in the USA, who, up until a few years ago, did world-leading research on climate change and extreme weather.

Pielke found convincing evidence that climate change was not leading to higher rates of weather-related damages worldwide.

He also convened major academic panels to survey the evidence. These resulted in almost unanimous scientific consensus on this topic. However, policymakers in the USA and elsewhere were adverse to his (and others’) findings.

Fact: Leading economists such as Ross McKitrick, PhD, have refuted many of the claims of climate change alarmists.

Fact: Much of the climate change data is manipulated at worst or misinterpreted at best, to suit the arguments of climate change alarmists.

Myron Ebell, Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, avers that there is no climate change or global change emergency or crises. It is fashionable for the “elites” to voice concern for climate change. Climate and Oceans are complex. Oceans contain most of the heat trapped from sunlight.

Certainly CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Certainly humans have contributed to the 400 parts per Million of atmosphere. But there is no crises or emergency. People who advance the crises argument rely upon models intentionally “tuned” to show dramatic and catastrophic results.

In reality, the impact of increased CO2 emissions are mild and might in fact be beneficial. The hype is created in order to raise extra income for certain interest groups including governments.

The increase in CO2 levels seem to cause the earth to become “greener” and contributes to increases in food production.

If you do subscribe to the calamity argument, the UN and other policies that have been implemented since 1980 have not had an impact.

Ebell contends that if the arguments put forward by alarmists were true, they would support the one possible energy solution, which is Nuclear power. They don’t. This tends to prove that the hysteria is being created to serve certain interest groups.

Fact: CO2 and other emissions taxes cannot reduce worldwide CO2 output in any event, because China, the world’s largest producer of CO2, is building more coal fired electricity power plants and continues to emit increasing amounts of CO2.

The conclusion is that carbon taxes are nothing more than a means of increasing the tax burden upon industry.

Government can, by means of carbon tax, signal its virtue to the rest of the world and at the same time, increase its revenues.

Why would it not do that?