I could support a Carbon tax if it were for all the right reasons.

[oneoff]

Power of doubling. Needs to be brought up to at same exponential rapidity; just to keep newcomers aware.

[grassfarmer]

Absolutely AF5, I have said many times that irregardless of the causes of climate change the solutions put forward involving reducing fossil fuel use are needed for sustainability anyway. It should be obvious to anybody with a brain that we can't continue to burn through finite resources at the rate we are. We live in a wasteful world - how many resources does it take to support the Kardashian family who appear to contribute nothing of value to society? Extreme examples apart we are not immune to waste in agriculture. The North American food system from field to plate including processing, transportation etc is said to use 13.3 calories of energy (mostly fossil fuel) for each calorie going into the consumers mouth. An old fashioned agriculture using mostly human and animal energy as still happens in many parts of the world would typically return 3-6 calories of food for every calorie expended.

[biglentil]

And your solution grassfarmer return us to the stone age? Do your part 1st grassfarmer tear down all your barbwire fences, sell the herd, let the bison roam free and move into teepee. Taxing us so JT can provide a full handout to another 50000 immigrants will hardly solve the problem.

[Hopalong]

Some good points and interesting discussion.
Takes me back to time of national energy policy of elder Trudeau.
Point was often made that fossil fuel resources are finite and that we should save them for benefit of future generations. Do not remember climate change and green house gasses being much of an issue.
Since that time, technology has made world running out of oil much less of an issue, also advances in alternative energy.
Think we give too much attention to fearmongers and not enough to our ability to develope new technology.

[foragefarmer]

Albertafarmer

You obviously put some thought into your post, compared to so many other posters that have ranted on and on about how bad the Carbon Tax will be, and running down anybody not agreeing with them. There are so many details that haven't been released, so I'm not sure how any opinions can be formed at this point.

The consumption of oil can not continue on the pace it is, as it will eventually run out, efforts have to be made to find some type of alternative energy sources, and let's have some faith in human innovation to come up with them. When our forefathers were farming with horses I'm sure with the arrival of the first steam powered farm equipment they were skeptical. Fuel consumption has to be curbed somehow, when driving in the cities or on major highways you see far to many single person vehicles on the road, car pooling or public transit is being less and less.

If the tax is funneled to research and development to increase fuel efficacy within Canada, or for new technology which could in itself become an major industry adding jobs within the country which could be sold or exported to other countries, I'm for it.


Yes, I know as farmers we have no alternative at this point to put and take off our crops with what we have, and will continue to use the current technology, but we don't even know how this tax will effect us at this point.

[furrowtickler]

this whole global warming thing reminds me of the false WMD the Iraq never had . It won't be till 15-20 years from now they will admit this was just a scam to pull money from one sector to anouther.
This is simply wealth transfer under a clown mask.
This will have zero effect on how much carbon dioxide is being emitted

[nicolaas]

is this carbon tax to be levied against industry as well? Or is it just for the public? The one in BC is essentially revenue neutral I hear. I am curious to see how it will affect ag.

[bucket]

K+S potash signed an agreement with nature conservancy of Canada to offset their emissions. ..that's where the transfer happens.



Neighbors sell their land to NCC then rent it back.... then the NCC peddles this land as a carbon sink for big money....but no government will direct pay to farmers the same fees.

[cottonpicken]

A lot of scientists believe oil is abiotic meaning it didn't come from dead dinosaurs,beyond me though.

[perfecho]

Certainly enjoy this discussion page more than others....
Heard an interview last night...haven't checked out facts, but some things for thought...
The carbon tax goes back to the provinces, so not an eastern thing...
BC already has a $30 per ton, so some of this is to level playing field between provinces....like AF5 says...it would be great to level between countries.
Sweden is up to close to $300 per ton....wow...they seem serious....although some items are not taxed.

This page has some good info...
http://www.carbontax.org/where-carbon-is-taxed/

There is a graph there that shows Australia brought in a carbon tax in 2012...175,000 ton of emissions...was repealed in 2014, even though emissions were trending down to below 160,000 tons and after the repeal it started trending up.

I know I didn't do anything about my electricity until it got real expensive here in Alberta...then I made changes.
Even if climate change is a hoax, what ever we can do to do better for our environment, cant be a bad thing. Trouble is...we have all gotten use to the wasteful society and easy living....

[grassfarmer]

And your solution grassfarmer return us to the stone age? Do your part 1st grassfarmer tear down all your barbwire fences, sell the herd, let the bison roam free and move into teepee. Taxing us so JT can provide a full handout to another 50000 immigrants will hardly solve the problem.

No we can do way better than that biglentil. We take down and put up cheap flexible little electric fences every day mimicking the action of the bison that built the tall grass prairie to organic levels of 10% or more. We are achieving this carbon sequestering effect and producing beef for food as a byproduct. Its profitable, burns minimal fossil fuel and we work to make it as sustainable as possible.

[canolacrazy]

i think everyone could get on board if they all truly believed that mother earth was going to be saved by this tax. even the policians supporting it don't believe that. otherwise they would be jacking the price up to where the "experts" say it should be, about $200/tonne of carbon.
their actions dictate that this is just a tax grab and nothing more. my prediction is we'll look back in ten years and see the earth hasn't cooled the 1.5-2 degrees these taxes are supposed to provide. you might as well try and hold back the tides.