Dear Ms. Kathleen Wynne,
In essence, this letter should be seen by all citizens globally and more precisely to the constituents in geopolitical regimes proposing carbon dioxide (CO2) taxes.
Since the beginning of what is termed anthropogenic global warming, which turned into climate change as global temperatures stopped rising two decades ago, it has been an issue based on 90% politics and 10% actual science.
Ms. Wynne, I absolutely and vehemently support your right to your opinion and that you feel that you are doing a service to your community. But, this is neither an emotional or moral undertaking with your tax plan.
Your plan must be based on cold, hard scientific numbers only. Your plan is destructive, not constructive. The reality is below.
Taxation is one of the necessary ‘evils’ within political entities and payers of those taxes bemoan them usually quietly but with certain taxes, their voices become more vociferous.
Taxpayers understand that in the large part they receive services from their governments for their tax payments.
The hue and cry against those payments occur when the payers realize their money is being wasted. The CO2 taxes are a particularly onerous example.
I am afraid that I must be past candid, to blunt. I perceive that your advisors’ knowledge of science is minimal, at best. The use of the expression carbon tax and not carbon dioxide tax is prima facie evidence of that.
To note: the carbon atom is the fourth most prevalent element in the universe and is, after oxygen, the second-most abundant element in human body mass (~ 18.5%) and we exhale several tons of CO2 into our atmosphere during our lifetimes.
Fossil fuel combustion creates CO2 and H2o (water vapor), not carbon! Its usage is political cant. It is sloppy and imprecise and so your entire plan becomes fruit from the ‘poisoned tree.’ As well, ~96%+ of CO2 the atmosphere is from nature, not man-made.
In a process that has gone on for approximately 4.5 billion years, the Earth receives heat from our sun diurnally and ‘x’ amount convects back into space in a balanced cycle.
A temperature within our lowest atmosphere, the troposphere is established within which humans, flora, and fauna can exist. Not too cold and not too hot.
The troposphere is not a g****house (I refuse to use the word). It has no walls and the ceiling is porous letting heat escape. The escaping heat (convection) via the Coriolis Effect creates advection, wind.
Without walls, CO2 emissions from thousands of miles away are part of your local atmosphere. CO2 is global and the so-called anthropogenic warming is also global.
India and China are the two largest emitters of CO2 and it is common knowledge that these countries, including Germany, Japan, and France, plan to construct 1,600+ coal-fired power plants.
This is verifiable fact and estimates of increased Anthropogenic emissions by 2030 run upwards of 40% globally.
Ms. Wynne, if you could convince President Xi Jinping or Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to follow your proposed tax theory to reduce CO2 emissions, then your effort would be laudable within your ideological drive.
Unfortunately, this is about science and simple numbers, not ideologies. Your Ontario CO2 tax may reduce global CO2 emissions by ~.00001%. When you subtract that from 40% of the effort, unfortunately, it segues from laudable to laughable.
The citizens of the Province of Ontario, though, will not be laughing when they understand how their hard-earned dollars are being wasted. Your plan will hurt our GDP and will achieve literally ‘nothing.’
If you can come up with a better plan, I will be the first to listen if it was to eradicate an actual pollutant.
I care deeply about our children, community, country, and the environment of our beautiful world as do all of those people termed deniers.
Thank you for your valuable time,
Alan L. Stewart
St. Catharines, Ontario
ADDENDUM:
The reality of the Paris Climate Accord is that it is an empty shell, literally, a tale of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Your plan will not get any help from the signatories. The facts I mentioned are below.
https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/nations-failing-to-keep-paris-climate-commitments Kenneth Artz
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/climate/china-energy-companies-coal-plants-climate-change.html New York Times
https://www.brookings.edu/2018/01/22/chinas-coal-consumption-has-peaked/ Brookings Institute
https://www.chinadialogue.net/blog/9876-China-s-clean-coal-power-A-viable-model-or-cautionary-tale-/enChina Dialogue
https://www.ft.com/content/5d351276-1c48-11e8-aaca-4574d7dabfb6The Financial Times
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/08/28/coal-power-india-decades-come-says-government-planning-body/ Climate Home News
https://canadafreepress.com/article/coal-is-king-in-india-and-elsewhere Jack Dini (CFP)
Well said Alan Stewart. The true nature of all climate alarm has been addressed in this essay: http://tech-know-group.com/essays/UN_IPCC_Trusted_or_Questioned.pdf where the facts speak for themselves. Any warming off atmospheric carbon dioxide is utterly impossible. No matter how often energy is recycled, it can never make the source of that energy warmer than it was before. Does the coffee in a thermos get warmer the lnger you keep it in there? Get the facts, make the right decisions.
When I buy a thousand litres of diesel fuel for my farm tractors, or fill my pickup with gasoline, I pay the carbon tax then, before I use the fuel, oxidizing it in my motor.
It could be a legal loophole they anticipated, slyly shortening CO2 to carbon.
They’re political ideologues. If only we could tax lies.
Every time I ma exposed to the stupid carbon tax arguments, I ask only one simple question.
Where I live in Southern Ontario, ten thousand years ago, the ICE was two MILES THICK.
Sea levels were 650 feet lower than they are at this time.
WHAT MELTED THE ICE?
I never seem to get an answer to this question, I wonder why.
P.S. I am a scientist as well.
Let’s face it. The truth of the matter is, “It’s all about the money”. Man has no contol over the weather nature. How any one can fall for this rubbish is beyond me.