From ClimateREALISM
Via Linnea Lueken
A recent story in Honolulu Civil Beat claims that climate change in Hawaii, due to fossil fuel use, is harming the islands, a problem that could be solved by taxing carbon dioxide emissions. These statements are clearly false. Climate change won’t cause unusual damage to Hawaii, and the carbon charge will only hurt residents, shift emissions — and the jobs that generate them — elsewhere, and have no impact. to climate.
In the article, “Climate change Policy change required, ” The author argues that climate change is caused by humans burning fuel. In fact, Earth’s climate changes independent of human activity.
Of course, you should recycle, compost, use reusable water bottles, etc., but climate change is the result of decades of burning fossil fuels and even subsidizing them, the author writes. “.
The past was both much warmer and cooler, with no human involvement in fuel burning, as discussed above. Climate realism this, thisand this, Eg. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says current CO2 levels were around 3.6 million years ago, according to a report at Climate realism this. However, today’s sea level is not what it was then, and the average temperature of the Earth during that time was 7 degrees higher than it is today.
The data is presented in Climate at a glance: Sea level rise shows that mean sea levels are now rising at approximately the rate they have been since the end of the last ice age. Figure 1 below shows that sea level rise in Honolulu has been relatively stable over the past hundred years, at about 1.55mm per year, increasing by half a foot every hundred years, about half of the global average rate since from the mid-1800s.
Hawaiian Islands formed by a volcanic “hot spot” remained stationary while the Pacific Plate moved to the northwest. Because of this motion, the southernmost islands are the youngest, while the Leeward Islands in the chain are the oldest. The plate moved slowly over the hotspot, taking in the islands, and without new lava being added to them, they gradually resisted tidal and wave erosion, and eventually was completely submerged. Every Hawaiian island as we know it will eventually disappear, with new islands replacing them. There is no need for man-made causes.
To prevent damage caused by climate change, the author advocates a tax on carbon dioxide.
Policies such as carbon fees or taxes are affected by “Leakage pollution, ” Meaning that since products — fuel, electricity and commodities in this case — are essential, they will still be made elsewhere as manufacturers move operations overseas. This results in no reduction in net emissions.
A carbon tax will not reduce emissions, but, Climate at a glance: A carbon dioxide tax shows that the carbon dioxide tax is highly regressive, dramatically increasing energy bills, fuel costs, and the prices of goods and services, harming poor and middle-income households the most.
Hawaii had highest cost of living of any other state, with utilities and groceries much more expensive than the national average. A plan that involves making electricity, groceries and fuel even more expensive in Hawaii is not helping the poor there.
The program’s stated goal is to make petroleum-based fuels so expensive, to the point where electric vehicles and other types of “renewable energy” become relatively more affordable. However, it would not reduce the absolute prices for those items and would harm the Hawaiian economy as a whole. Hawaii relies entirely on fossil fuel transportation – most of its food comes from non-Hawaiian sources and must be arrived by ship or plane. Tourism, Hawaii’s largest industry, is predicted in part based on affordable airfare, which will obviously become more costly with a carbon tax, and possibly lead to a drop in tourism. According to the Energy Information Administration, jet fuel accounts for nearly three-fifths of Hawaii’s gasoline consumption.
It makes no sense to levy this regressive tax on people, potentially destroying household budgets in a situation that is already extremely expensive to live in. t do. Even if carbon dioxide emissions are contributing to climate change, as new research from the Heartland Institute shows, “Climate Briefing for Teachers and Students: Facts on 30 Outstanding Climate Topics, ” Shows, this is no cause for alarm. It’s important in 2018Hawaii produces 1.3 million indexes tons of carbon dioxide emissions. For comparison, China produces 28 million tons of carbon dioxide per day, Every day the amount of carbon dioxide emitted is 21 times more than Hawaii emits in a year. Therefore, whatever contribution Hawaii’s carbon dioxide emissions make to climate change are so small, the carbon tax would have no noticeable impact on the climate.
https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/linnea-lueken
Linnea Lueken is a Research Fellow of the Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy. As a Heartland Institute intern in 2018, she co-authored the Heartland Institute Policy Brief “Drawling Four Persistent Myths of Hydraulic Fracture.”
Related
