 Originally Posted by Moonbeam
pj, aren't corporations corrupt and untrustworthy too? Wouldn't the rights that would curtailed be mostly those of big corporations that could care less about the environment and anything but making money? (Yes there would probably be some individual financial sacrifice too, but people spend more on bottled water than gasoline so I think we could handle it.) A corporation is not the same as an individual when it comes to liberty (and there shouldn't be a corporate shield when it comes to responsibility). Even assuming the chance of global warming is not likely, how could it be bad to 1)reduce pollution, 2)find alternative energy sources for those that are finite or destructive like coal-mining, and 3)get the US free of dependence on middle-eastern psychopathic fundamentalists? Unless somebody actually believes that the oil is continually replacing itself from below (and I've met educated people who think that this is true), the way we are living is obviously not sustainable. Great for a few people now, not so good for the kids. I don't understand why people now aren't willing to sacrifice a little so the world doesn't totally suck for future generations.
Seriously, I want to know why a reasonable person such as youself would be against making multinational oil companies a little less incredibly wealthy, if only as insurance. What am I missing?
P.S. I liked your Spirit quote--don't hear them very often anymore! I saw them a long time ago, I think they opened up for Steppenwolf.
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Wow... where to start on this? In five minutes, I can't get too far... but all questions are worthy of being addressed. (I decided to avoid this thread until after the grand release of the UN report summary. Now that I know we're all gonna die and we can't do anything about it, it seems safe to tread these not so icy waters. I've also been wildly busy and will continue to be so for a few more days. Business is good - and that's a wonderful thing!
The key to answering your very complicated question goes back to where the authority lies. Who is going to decide that it isn't OK for oil companies to be making a 7.9 to 8.6 percent profit margin - or that it is ok for Microsoft to be making 35%+ profit margin? Where are we going to invest that authority? In government??? As we move forward into an economy ever more dependent on energy sources, why would we want to PUNISH and make more expensive these company's ability to do business? What if my little one man operation started turning a 35% profit margin? Should government step in and start punishing me for creating that much wealth? (35% of little is still little, of course... but still.)
It is key to remember who owns these publicly-owned companies too. Who owns these stocks?
Also - why were and are the governments and these huge corporations playing games together at all? These "tax breaks" that are going to be repealed - why were they implemented in the first place? The answer, plain and simple, is government corruption.
It all comes down to who owns us, Moonbeam. We the People own these corporations. Anybody who has an investment account or retirement fund owns these companies. I do not believe governments are worthy of having their fingers in any of my pies. I also don't believe that government is going to ever solve anything - even if there really IS a "climate crisis." They will capitalize on it, indeed... as they always do. Solving it would end up being detrimental to their ends - which are to accumulate and hold wealth and power.
*sigh* I'm out of time. In the meantime, the following compilation of headlines (courtesy of James P. Hogan,) is kind of fun to read and helps put things in perspective:
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GLOBAL COOLING: 1890s-1930s
The Times, February 24, 1895
"Geologists Think the World May Be Frozen Up Again"
Fears of a "second glacial period" brought on by increases in northern glaciers and the severity of Scandinavia's climate.
New York Times, October 7, 1912
"Prof. Schmidt Warns Us of an Encroaching Ice Age"
Los Angeles Times, June 28, 1923
"The possibility of another Ice Age already having started ... is admitted by men of first rank in the scientific world, men specially qualified to speak."
Chicago Tribune, August 9, 1923
"Scientist says Arctic ice will wipe out Canada."
Time Magazine, September 10, 1923
"The discoveries of changes in the sun's heat and the southward advance of glaciers in recent years have given rise to conjectures of the possible advent of a new ice age."
New York Times, September 18, 1924
"MacMillan Reports Signs of New Ice Age"
GLOBAL WARMING: 1930s-1960s
New York Times, March 27, 1933
"America in Longest Warm Spell Since 1776; Temperature Line Records a 25-Year Rise"
Time Magazine, January 2, 1939
"Gaffers who claim that winters were harder when they were boys are quite right.... weather men have no doubt that the world at least for the time being is growing warmer."
Time Magazine, 1951
Noted that permafrost in Russia was receding northward at 100 yards per year.
New York Times, 1952
Reported global warming studies citing the "trump card" as melting glaciers. All the great ice sheets stated to be in retreat.
U.S. News and World Report, January 18, 1954
"[W]inters are getting milder, summers drier. Glaciers are receding, deserts growing."
GLOBAL COOLING: 1970s
Time Magazine, June 24, 1974
"Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age."
Christian Science Monitor, August 27, 1974
"Warning: Earth's Climate is Changing Faster than Even Experts Expect"
Reported that "glaciers have begun to advance"; "growing seasons in England and Scandinavia are getting shorter"; and "the North Atlantic is cooling down about as fast as an ocean can cool".
Science News, March 1, 1975
"The cooling since 1940 has been large enough and consistent enough that it will not soon be reversed, and we are unlikely to quickly regain the 'very extraordinary period of warmth' that preceded it."
International Wildlife, July-August, 1975
"But the sense of the discoveries is that there is no reason why the ice age should not start in earnest in our lifetime."
New York Times, May 21, 1975
"Scientists Ponder Why World's Climate is Changing; A Major Cooling Widely Considered to Be Inevitable"
GLOBAL WARMING: 1990s-?
Earth in the Balance, Al Gore, 1992
"About 10 million residents of Bangladesh will lose their homes and means of sustenance because of the rising sea level due to global warming, in the next few decades."
Time Magazine, April 19, 2001
"[S]cientists no longer doubt that global warming is happening, and almost nobody questions the fact that humans are at least partly responsible."
New York Times, December 27, 2005
"Past Hot Times Hold Few Reasons to Relax About New Warming"
The Daily Telegraph, February 2, 2006
"Billions will die, says Lovelock, who tells us that he is not usually a gloomy type. Human civilization will be reduced to a 'broken rabble ruled by brutal warlords,' and the plague-ridden remainder of the species will flee the cracked and broken earth to the Arctic, the last temperate spot where a few breeding couples will survive."
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