Carbon Politics

Remember the talk of the most powerful person on this planet on energy, given on Earth Day 2009? Obama, just like previous US presidents, is pushing the free market solution to carbon management. I quote him: "Carbon pollution would become like a commodity. It would have a value as a limited resource." This is really scary.

Haven't we learned? Carbon Derivatives to Become World’s Largest Derivatives Market. Instantly. That means that market speculation and manipulation will take place. The banks will control the carbon market. Once again, the rich will misuse it. The banks will get rich on it. Management fees, commissions, etc. But worst of all, the environment will not receive the expected and desired benefit. It will be a economy based on scarcity (see Zeitgeist). Speculations will run wild. There will be bubbles. It will be an unstable, unpredictable, and unsustainable system. It would be more beneficial to have a stable and transparent system, allowing companies to plan and execute the carbon reduction in a fixed economic environment (as opposed to an environment where the prices of carbon on the carbon derivative exchanges fluctuate drastically). And in the end, the environment and we as consumers will pay the price. Reduction through consistent regulation - in my opinion - could show quicker effects on reducing global warming and would have less risk of failing. It can even be cheaper for the corporations who have to implement it because it will reduce the middle man (the banks), advance technology faster and thereby reduce implementation cost, and reduce speculative risks. To play with words, the US will be using a system for carbon management. But we don't need more management, what we need is carbon reduction. Management has no intrinsic value for the society. Carbon reduction does have intrinsic value for the society.

Let's reduce the management (that makes the banks and speculators rich) and go directly to the reduction.