Demand For 'Kyoto Tax' On The US

Heck yea! Great idea!<p> But just 2 small points: The US won't like us taxing them, I can see some major repercussions from that and 2) I still don't buy that climate change is our fault.<p> <p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain <br />"The greatest price of not participating in politics is being governed by your inferiors." Plato

Well yes, but Canada hasn\'t even signed on to this yet, and much balking in Alberta will just help the U.S. on this one! Of course the rest of the world may not care about those in denial in Alberta. We all have to be stewards to this great planet, not just a few countries with consciences.

I beg to differ. We in Alberta are quite envrionmentally concious. We are against Kyoto because we don't know what it represents. There is no implementation plan, there are no goals and there is no direction. The last time we got handed that kind of a plan, they called it the Gun Registry.<p> Even environmental scientists aren't in agreement with the cause of global warming, and even if there is global warming; if they can't agree, how are we to know who or what is responsible? If we don't know the cause, then how do we tackle the problem?<p> Perhaps you saw something in my comment you would term 'balking', but I re-read my comment and failed to find it. Perhaps you could point it out?<p><p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain <br />"The greatest price of not participating in politics is being governed by your inferiors." Plato

Who cares what the US thinks.

That being said, I agree with your other comment, that Kyoto is just a meaningless number. We need DRASTIC improvement.

You want to decrease emissions? Tax gasoline like the Europeans so, and build better railways for people to ride on to avoid cars, and for people to ship freight across this huge country. Raising the gas-taxes would be less harmful if we had proper railways, and would make roads safer. (Fewer cars, trucks.)

Kyoto could be signed, but we can do other things.

Perturbed and smart! (Good thing you didn\'t call yourself mad.)
I live on a major highway with transport trucks going steady. The time it takes for a newly paved road surface to be destroyed is about maybe a year. Not to mention the high level of fatal accidents involving large vehicles. Making more use of the railway would be one of my first recommendations. Also additional tax on gas gobbling vehicles. Maybe that would encourage co-op vehicle use for people in need of a truck once in a while rather than for back and forth to an office job. Infact, they should not be allowed inside large cities at all.

Even if global warming in a natural, cyclical occurance there is still no reason to fill the air we breath with toxins. I used to be a smoker and every year we were banned from this space and then that space and yet there were days I could barely breath from the vehicle emissions in Vancouver. Or from slash burning in the interior of B.C.. There\'s more crap in the air than there could ever be if everyone on the planet chained smoked! The way we attack problems sometimes can only be described as insane.

Good points....and thanks!

No one can ever convince me that the amount of pollution coming from all the gasoline and diesel engines running on this planet don\'t cause damage to the air we breathe.

Common sense dictates !!



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"Arrogance in Politics is unacceptable"
Jim Callaghan
Minden, Ontario
705-286-1860
www.misterc.ca

But the question is, are those pollutants responsible for the change in climate? It there a change in climate?<p> Some scientists believe we are returning to warmer levels found about 900 years ago. Some feel the sun is simply going through one of it's phases and getting warmer by a few thousand degrees.<p> I agree, we should reduce emissions, just four our own self respect. But are they the cause of the problem, or is there even a problem?<p> <p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain <br />"The greatest price of not participating in politics is being governed by your inferiors." Plato

We know what kyoto means. We just don`t know what sort of committment our spineless government has! We definitely should NOT follow the US or Russia in not ratifying. Canada leads the world in fuel cell technology. Are we going to pull another Avro -Arrow? Consumers should be given the choice to buy a fuel cell powered vehicle. Fossil fuel emissions are poison! Even if global warming is still inconclusive (though I believe greenhouse gases have amplified whatever warming cycle we`re in), then we should be looking at it from a pollution perspective. On southern Ontario smog days, YOU CAN`T BREATHE! In the summer,we get those whenever there`s a southwest wind coming from the US. The sky is even brown! But when we get a northwest wind, the air is breathable and the sky is blue again. But still, the Harris sorries relaxed pollution and emission laws to satisfy their corporate buddies and ontario suddenly became the third worst polluting district in North America behind Texas and Pennsylvania.

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Dave Ruston

Dude! Name your car or the bus you take everyday the "Avro Arrow" or something! Get over it! It's been 50 years!<p> We know what Kyoto means, but not what it is. I've heard Toronto is bad in the summer, but that is only a 'smog island'. If I go to the top of Pyramid Mountain in Jasper, I can see 50km in every direction - clear as a bell. As you say, most of the smog comes from south of the 49th, so no matter what Canada does, if the states doesn't follow suit, it will be a somewhat wasted effort. To further my point above, whatever Kyoto means, it means the Canadians will have to pay for it, and the Americans will just keep polluting.<p> A fuel cell car would be wonderful, but on a day like today (-39 daytime high) I'll take my dino burner thanks <p> <p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain <br />"The greatest price of not participating in politics is being governed by your inferiors." Plato

I tend to use the Arrow as a lesson in not repeating past mistakes! Fuel cell vehicles can run in winter too, you know. And just because the US refuses to take responsibility, does not mean that Canada should follow suit! Oh, on top of those \'pristine\' Alberta mountains, scientists are finding every type of industrial chemical and/or emission in the layers of snow and ice. Mountain glaciers around the world are receding from global warming. And it is truly a sad testament to human recklessness when we find PCB`s in the fat of polar bears! Just business as usual in the Ralph Klein-George Bush way of thinking is not good for anybody!

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Dave Ruston

I agree with some of the comments above, the way the government has gone at smokers everywhere like they are the ones polluting the planet, it is sick! But it seems every generation of gov needs some part of society to be the whipping segment...it gives the cowards someone to vent at, you see it everywhere now. The Kyoto plan, seems to me to be bringing awareness to a large problem, mostly caused by corporate planning, just look at what happens when you heap any amount of garbage and let it sit, it gets warm and gives off gases. On a larger scale, if we keep cutting down all the trees, and keep pumping toxins into the air, we are going to alter the delicate makeup of our planet. Just look at all the crazy weather, could it be that mother nature is trying to clean up our mess.

Also, Dr. Caleb, I wasn\'t referring to you when I said Alberta, maybe you are just sensitive to the Alberta reference, but I too am an Albertan;
Reread my statement:
\'much balking in Alberta will just help the U.S. on this one!\'