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1. Adam (inkslinger@mastodon.club)'s status on Thursday, 18-Apr-2019 22:47:13 EDT Adam

   Interesting article from Maclean's: Is it time for a strategic retreat from carbon pricing?
   https://www.macleans.ca/?p=1175083

   This is *not* a conservative, anti-environmentalist article.

   #carbontax #climateemergency #climatechange #ClimateAction

   1. M. Grégoire (mpjgregoire@mastodon.club)'s status on Friday, 19-Apr-2019 09:06:07 EDT M. Grégoire

      in reply to

      @ink_slinger The underlying issue is that Canadians say they want to reduce carbon emissions, but they don't want to make personal sacrifices, especially not increased gas prices (and indeed a #CarbonTax really is a tax on everything).

      Canadian Conservative parties have been exploiting this inconsistency. But even other political parties have been afraid to take measures strong enough to cut emissions. Do we have any real success stories in this country, other than closing coal power plants?

      1. M. Grégoire (mpjgregoire@mastodon.club)'s status on Friday, 19-Apr-2019 09:12:50 EDT M. Grégoire

         in reply to

         @ink_slinger Actually, other than replacing coal power by natural gas, and shutting down Communist environmental nightmares, has any country at all succeeding in reducing #carbon emissions in the last 25 years?

         (I should look for a book on country-by-country emissions. Suggestions are welcome.)

         At present, it seems to me that, if the world succeeds in reducing carbon emissions at all, it will because we develop better, cheaper technologies. Failure seems quite possible.

         1. M. Grégoire (mpjgregoire@mastodon.club)'s status on Friday, 19-Apr-2019 09:26:31 EDT M. Grégoire

            in reply to

            @ink_slinger OTOH, solar electricity is becoming cost competitive to produce, and if we also develop better energy storage and transmission technologies, that could do a lot. Or #NuclearPower could become cheaper than coal, as well as cleaner (France is a good example of a country that de-carbonised energy production in the 70s and 80s).

            But there are sectors other than energy production where solutions seem distant. There's no replacement for jet fuel, for instance.

            1. M. Grégoire (mpjgregoire@mastodon.club)'s status on Friday, 19-Apr-2019 09:50:48 EDT M. Grégoire

               in reply to

               @ink_slinger Of course one of the advantages of a #CarbonTax is how it makes new technologies cost-competitive earlier in their development...