Putting a Cap on Carbon: Is this the "Silver Bullet" we've been looking for?

Question

In their book "Earth: The Sequel," Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn explore the energy sources they predict will both power our future and jump-start economic growth. "No single technology will stop global warming," the authors write, "but there is a silver bullet: a cap on carbon that will launch all these solutions into the mainstream."

What did you think of the book? Do you agree with them?

Answer 1

Anything is better than nothing. A little late but never too late.

Answer 2

I think their kookoo for coocoo puffs.

Just follow the money for any of these ideas.

Thats what its all about.

One could draw a strait bell curve line from our wallets to their bank accounts.

Answer 3

No - co2 has been increasing for the last 10 years, yet temperatures have remained constant or even declined slightly.

There is no relationship between co2 and temperatures.

Nuclear power produces all the energy we need without producing any co2.  This is the correct action.  Caps on carbon will not work.

Answer 4

I hate to burst the bubble (no pun intended), but there are several greenhouse gases. Nitric oxide is five times more absorbent of heat.

Answer 5

Not if the cap isn't global.

Growth in developing countries is far, far greater than reductions in developing nations.

Countries such as India don't even ask their own wealthy to scale back, so why does the U.N. advocate that such hypocrites should be able to grosw emissions at breakneck speed?

Climate injustice: The rich are hiding behind the poor  

In India, 150 million people who belong to the upper-income groups already emit more than 2.5 tonnes of CO2 per annum. A new Greenpeace report states that India’s rich consuming class is hiding its significant carbon footprint behind legions of poor. Shouldn’t the government, which demands differentiated responsibility in the international arena, establish the same within India?

http://www.infochangeindia.org/index.php...

That's before you consider the contribution of black carbon, a large contributor to global warming from developing nations.

We have to stop subsidizing growth of global damage in developing countries.

Jello -

How many times do you have to repeat a lie to make it seem true?  If you have any global evidence, show it!  Otherwise, as has been pointed out to you repeatedly, NASA's data clearly reveals your claim as blatantly false:

"The year 2007 tied for second warmest in the period of instrumental data, behind the record warmth of 2005"

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2...

Answer 6

I think it's putting it too strongly to call a carbon cap a 'silver bullet'.  I think it's probably the biggest step in addressing global warming, because a carbon cap by definition allows us to limit our CO2 emissions - at least industrial emissions.

Of course, in addition to enacting a carbon cap, we also need to make the cap feasible by funding R&D of the green technologies which will allow industries to meet the carbon regulations.  One good thing about a carbon cap is that it creates a lot of demand for green technologies.  If a company has to limit it's carbon emissions, it's going to look for innovative ways to do it.  Ideally governments will sell carbon credits to industries, and then use much of the money to fund green technology R&D.

There's also the issue of individual emissions, which are generally not addressed under carbon cap systems.  I think it would be a good idea to eventually issue people 'carbon credit cards' and have a carbon price associated with all products just like they have a monetary price.  That way we could truly regulate our total carbon emissions, but it would take a long time to create such a system and convince people to support it.

In the meantime, if there's a carbon cap on industry, then generally speaking products with a larger carbon footprint will have a higher price, so that's a good start.