Why do "Global Warming Worshippers" love Carbon Credits? How can they possibly reduce pollution?

Question

Who gets the money and what do they do with it?

Answer 1

You've used the phrase "Global Warming Worshippers" 3 times in your questions in just one day.  Are you really here to ask questions, or does it somehow make you feel better to be offensive to people you don't know?

The idea behind carbon credits is to slowly increase the cost of emitting carbon so that alternative clean energy technologies get implemented.  

If you knew that gas would be $10/gallon in 2 years, I suspect any car you bought would get a lot better mileage than if you expected gas prices to drop back to $3/gallon.  Carbon credits are the same type of incentive, but industry knows in advance how much the price of emissions will go up.

Answer 2

I wish I had some carbon credits to sell.  I'm running a bit short of cash lately and would be glad to get any global warming alarmist sucker to buy them. I don't mind taking their money.

Answer 3

IF you really wanted to know about it, you WOULD READ ABOUT IT as there is plenty of literature.

Obviously, that is not what you might be interested in

This is NOT A QUESTION, THIS IS A RANT.

REASON WHY IT IS A RANT:

Uses the word "worshipper for established technico-economic concepts" (see MIT studies).

Answer 4

Same way that SO2 trading reduced acid rain.  Next question.

Answer 5

The money goes to some sort of carbon offset company which uses it to fund a program which (if they do it right) would otherwise not have happened, and which reduces atmospheric CO2.  Most often they use the money to plant trees.  Sometimes they'll use it to fund a renewable energy project (such as construction of a solar power plant).  That's how they reduce 'pollution' (more accurately, atmospheric CO2 levels).

Answer 6

It's not so much about reducing pollution but rather about transfering wealth from the haves to the have nots.

The carbon credit program will take money from profitable energy suppliers and give that money to wanna be energy suppliers that can not make a profit on their own.

This will in effect, reduce the productivity in the entire sector and increase prices for energy which will in turn increase prices for all goods and services.

Same old tree hugger style solution: It does nothing to address the problem at hand and costs everybody through unintended consequences.

It would, in essence, be the single largest tax increase imposed on the american people in the history of our country.

Answer 7

What are carbon credits?

Answer 8

It might very well reduce pollution but it will cripple our economy in the process. Carbon credits will cause grave harm to the economy.  It will stifle any free market energy solutions and put the economy in the hands of a bloated bureaucracy.  Why these simpletons believe that will help us is beyond me.  If they would bother to educate themselves a tiny bit on basic economics (and not socialism), they would learn that centralized control is nearly always the problem, not the solution.  Now we have Obama and McCain as choices to lead us in the future.  We are in big trouble, I'm afraid.  This dwarfs the problems associated with global warming.

Answer 9

In theory, the money goes to another entity that reduces its own carbon emissions by a certain amount.  

There is nothing wrong with carbon credits as long as they are being sold by a reputable company or organization.  But there are many scams out there, so you need to be careful.

Answer 10

Companies that have no option but to pollute help to fund companies that create a positive impact on the environment, but due to economies of scale and past instances of federal subsidization, do not currently have a strong enough footing in the world market.

Carbon credits are sold to companies like coal powered electricity producers, and the money is then used to fund alternative energy producers.

People are right when they say that most often it goes to planting trees, which is nice and all, but really doesn't address the root cause of the problem.

No one worships global warming.