Digg is open, folks.

The importance of this demonstration cannot be missed and should not be misinterpreted — Dominion Power (which supplies DC and VA) is in the middle of doing a new power plant, to be built on top of a coal mine, in the poorest part of Virginia, far away from the seat of power and money, in the far western part of the state. This is not only a case of environmental justice, it is also an issue of social justice as well, since this part of Virginia is poor, polluted, blighted from the coal mining, with eviscerated mountainsides, undrinkable water, streams filled with tailings and so on.

The ‘cap and trade’legislation must also be shown as VERY insufficient to addressing the problem.

Elliot! Yes.

Hansen said a couple of years ago that we had 10 years to act. More recently he has cut it down to 4. He thinks cap and trade is insufficient and I would have to agree. It seems like more of a way of going through the motions of doing something without really doing it. He advocate a carbon tax.

Look how poorly we are reacting to worldwide depression. I just can’t see us and the rest of the world acting together to minimize the effects of global climate change. Mostly we will chronicle the advances of global warming and the political theatrics that surrounds them.

Oh and my Hansen link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/envi…..ate-change

thanks elliot for the youtube and hugh for the guardian link. and special thanks to anyone going to dc for the protest.

hansen testified before the house ways and means committee on wednesday. his short written statement describes the tax and dividend approach he advocates:

The most honest effective way to achieve a carbon price capable of driving our economy and our society to the clean world of the future is “Carbon Tax with 100% Dividend”[3]. For example, a carbon price equivalent to $1/gallon of gasoline (about $115 per ton of CO2), for 2007 rates of fossil fuel use in the United States, generates $670B. If we give one share to each legal resident age 22 and over, one half-share to college age youth (18-21), one half-share to the parents of each child up to two children per family, that yields about 224 million shares in 2007 (this could be off by ~10%; I could not find optimum census data). So the 100% Dividend for a $1/gallon tax rate ($115 per ton of CO2) is:

Single share: $3000/year ($250 per month, deposited monthly in bank account)

Family with 2 children: $9000/year ($750 per month, deposited monthly in bank account)

The tax rate and dividend should increase with time.[4] This approach would reduce demand for fossil fuels, driving down the price of fossil fuels on the open market. The next time the price of gasoline reaches $4/gallon most of that $4 should be tax, with 100% of that tax returned to the public as dividend. Instead of our money going to the Middle East and other foreign places, most of it would stay at home.[5]

and he also weighs in on cap tax and trade:

‘Cap & Trade’ increases costs to the public as does ‘Tax & Dividend’, but without the dividend. Thus it should be termed ‘Tax & Trade’.[9] Part of the reason for the pseudonym is to avoid the stigma of a tax, under the presumption that the public is too gullible to figure it out. Other parties support ‘Cap & Trade’ because they hope to profit – it is a give-away to special interests, who feel, based on extensive empirical evidence, that they will be able to manipulate the program through their lobbyists. Except for its stealth approach to taxing the public, and its attraction to special interests, ‘Cap & Trade’ seems to have little merit.

Thanks, Elliot, once again!