Hey all, I would like to get a discussion going on the Carbon Tax after getting more informed about uranium mining in SA and NT as well as coal seam gas mining in the US and Tara, QLD.
I was told by the mainstream news yesterday that there is more opposition to the carbon tax than there is support.
Until that point I was a fence sitter on this topic, not sure what to think of it, you hear a lot of big business propaganda (loss of jobs, loss of investment & revenue, ...) and worry about the already debt-riddled middle class households paying even more for their electricity and so on.
That made me think that THAT is exactly what THEY want us to think - to be opposed to the carbon tax for all these reasons, real or not, so that corporations don't lose any profits.
That's when I became a supporter of the carbon tax.
Then I started thinking about how to make this tax more appealing to the broader community i.e. middle class "working families" - a re-brand.
1. Exclude households from the tax (even though households are the largest emitters of greenhouse gas)
2. Rename the tax to something that people can relate to, such as Environmental Damage Tax... or Sustainability tax or something
3. Have the necessary backup of scientists, credible specialists, field staff etc. to decide on what emitters should pay for - bush and wildlife rehabilitation, water usage (Olympic Dam Uranium mine uses about 35 million litres per day), chemicals used (and spilled/evaporated), waste (nuclear waste should really be guaranteed in safe storage for over 1 million years, except there is no safe storage as yet), community impact etc.- and control that legislation is being followed
4. Ensure that this tax revenue is only used for:
- Renewable Energy programs (such as the Beyond Zero Emissions Transition plan) in order to get all households into the renewable energy grid within 10 years
- Reversing damage done to the environment
- Staff?
I hope my train of thoughts makes sense to (most of) you - that this tax could actually help with several things in Australia:
- to deter mining companies to come here and rip up the bush by making it less profitable
- to make renewables a cheaper alternative to fossil fuels in the near future
- just to win some time in order to get closer to our goal RBE and get more global supporters for Renewable Energy grids / sustainability
- to get revenue for the Renewable Energy sector (which will also provide more jobs in the long run than mining)
- to get cheaper, greener energy for households quickly
- to create jobs
Please comment on this as I am sure there are many opinions out there and many things that I haven't thought of.
Obviously this is a rough plan/brainstorm, but I feel it may be something that the broad community could support (cause there’s something in it for them),rather than doing nothing, and therefore it would raise awareness and hopefully involvement and of course create political pressure to hopefully do something right by the people for once.
If you haven't had a look, check out the Beyond 0 website:
http://www.beyondzeroemissions.org
