1) We are probably screwing up the planet through overpopulation, overconsumption, and pollution. This will impact the quality of life on earth for a lot of people.
2) Awareness of #1 is very high among the middle and upper classes (those with money). Many people feel guilty and fearful about it.
3) “Carbon credits” “Carbon taxes”, “cap&trade”, etc… are ways to capitalize on #2 and relieve people’s fear and guilt while doing nothing about #1.
The “carbon tax” has the added bonus of appealing to lazy people that don’t actually want to change their lifestyle. They will simply feel better about themselves (and their government) after paying their carbon taxes, knowing that someone is “doing something” about the problem. Meanwhile they’ll keep zipping up and down the freeway 50 miles a day commuting from their suburban home to their job.
Meanwhile the money will be used for all of the usual things that governments do with money: graft, war, murder, etc…
And they’ll be able to issue lots of great statistics, like “weather in the central US is 3% cooler this year! The carbon tax is doing its job!” No one will ever be able to prove one way or another whether anything is actually changing or not. It it gets cooler they’ll claim victory, if it gets hotter they’ll claim victory. Just like “global warming” has morphed into “global climate change.”
