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Would you support an environment tax as part of measures to counter global warming?

34 Comments
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Depends how usefully or wastefully the money would be used.

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No one really knows what the heck to do about this. Even money for research is questionable, because most everyone who knows what they're doing is already engaged in research. Certainly they could use more money, but government funding this specific often has such ridiculous strings attached it might be more of an impediment than a spur.

Any such tax would go right into unintended coffers, and someone else's pockets; bet on it.

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We won't want government influencing the results, looking for evidence that support their predetermined answers, instead of the other way around following wherever the evidence takes you.

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after wikileaks released all those documents showing the global warming threat was basically manufactured I can't support a bogus tax for a bogus cause.

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It completely depends on HOW the government planned on implementing it. If it were on gasoline -- to promote hybrid cars or use of more environmentally friendly transportation -- I would. As it's going to probably be put on natural gas to heat homes or what have you, I don't.

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To save this planet human probably should move into direction of consume less, work less, eat less meat more vegetables/grains ...so why is MORE tax?

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Like any tax, it requires a detailed justification and analysis that the way how it is implemented will achieve the targeted purpose. Just asking for "environment tax" and "counter global warming" is far too vague to yield anything else than a maybe. What I would support is the reformation from an income/profit-based towards a resource/pollution-based tax system.

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hows a tax going to repair the enviroment ?

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To save this planet human probably should move into direction of consume less, work less, eat less meat more vegetables/grains

Or we can just keep going and adapt as the changes happen. People assume that changes are rapid, they're not, and personally I'd rather live in a future underwater home than pay a single cent to counter global warming. Bring on the melted ice caps, I see an investment in underwater real estate.

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are you kidding they would waste the money. that is all governments do is waste money. they can not do anything with out wasting money. Something only the governments can do so that is shouganai. but they can improve the environment without tax. they can offer tax benefits which they already are. stuff like that. benefits for companies and countries who change. maybe if the USA actually does something, since they are the single worst in the WORLD when it comes to CO gas.

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Tax big business not the little man!

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That kind of TAX would be a scam!

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Definately not! CO2 produced by humans does not cause any kind of global warming. It's not a myth, but straight forward lies.

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Those who feel their government is wisely spending the money it takes from them now but isn't enough, should vote for this tax.

-Just think of it as getting it all back down the road in food stamps.

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Correction: '...getting some of it back...'

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Just another excuse to take money from us.

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Man, what a sweet tax that would be. Pay more to the government because of heat generated by a giant thermonuclear ball of fire out in space. Where's our "cosmic radiation tax" or our "blackhole tax" to keep the earth from harmful radiation or from being sucked into a blackhole?

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The vast majority of pollution, both CO2 and other, is generated by industry and corporations. I fail to see why i should pay a tax that wouldn't be necessary if these industries cleaned up their acts. The joke is that one of the biggest polluters, the iron and steel industry, is not economically viable in Japan or the U.S. but they're heavily government subsidised, so they're already taking our tax money and turning it into pollution... now they want MORE tax money so presumably they can produce more pollution.

The solution is tighter pollution standards for corporations with heavy penalties if they fail to comply. The problem is that with a global marketplace no country wants to be the first to do this because it would make their industries less competitive internationally, and many companies would just move to places with less stringent regulations.

The bottom line though is that there will always be countries that are willing to sacrifice the environment in order to gain an economic advantage, like China and India, and they'll never voluntarily sign any treaty on pollution control or emission standards. The Japanese government just needs to man up and say, "Okay, enough messing around, I can't control what India, China, the US or outer Mongolia do, but I can control what happens in Japan, and from today companies need to shape up to new environmental standards or ship out, and we're slapping trade embargoes on any country that doesn't have similar standards, no matter how cheap their goods.".

What people don't realise is that as the world's second biggest economy Japan is like the banks, it's too big to fail. If Japan did this the rest of the world would be FORCED to step in to save Japan's economy, and in the process to adopt similar standards. All it takes is the balls to take the risk... If the U.S. did it at the same time the entire world would pretty much change overnight, but expecting the U.S. to do anything that doesn't have $$$ signs in front of it isn't going to happen.

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Depends on how they spend it and if they lower other taxes. I don't want to pay any more overall, as I already feel that I am paying FAR too much. I can barely live on my salary as it is.

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Cash grab. Global warming is a myth ... -9 today. Seems like things are back to normal.

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jforce at 08:57 AM JST - 13th January Cash grab. Global warming is a myth ... -9 today. Seems like things are back to normal.

Not a myth. Global warming is just the name of the theory, not the entire theory. eyeroll I mean honestly saying that just because winter is cold that global warming isn't real is like criticising the Theory of Gravity for having no gravy... it shows a level of understanding of the theory that is so superficial that it just proves you have no right to comment on it.

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Frungy - Not a myth. Global warming is just the name of the theory, not the entire theory. eggroll I mean honestly saying that just because winter is cold that global warming isn't real is like criticising the Theory of Gravity for having no gravy... it shows a level of understanding of the theory that is so superficial that it just proves you have no right to comment on it.

Global warming, as predicted by the IPCC, is a failed concept that hasn't been proven. The "global" tempurature hasn't increased since 1989.

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Arrestpaul, Funny you say that because last year tied with 2005 as being the warmest year on record for global surface temperature. "2010 experienced temperatures higher than the 20th century average for the 34th year in a row, Overall, 2010 and 2005 were 0.62 Celsius above the 20th century average when taking a combination of land and water surface temperatures across the world" and that is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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Overall, 2010 and 2005 were 0.62 Celsius above the 20th century average when taking a combination of land and water surface temperatures across the world" and that is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Assuming that is true, how much of the increase was caused by mankind? A specific measurement would be helpful in creating an appropriate tax.

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Global warming is not a myth. Whether its caused by humans is the debatable part. I don't support an increase in my taxes to combat this issue because governments waste our current money as it is.

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Essentially this would be a sin tax. With the priests arbitrary deciding how much each of us has sinned. This has all been done before through the ages. A problem that can never be fixed. This is going through whether you or I like it or not. Then it will eventually be centralized via the World Bank. Instead of getting confused in the flow of constant new information which attempts to prove it is true or false, people should invest some time in studying how this idea has manifested itself.

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In the end of the day any additional corporate taxes will be passed on to us, the consumers.

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Global Warming is a myth and has become a new religion. I will refuse to pay any "environment" taxes. They can put me in jail if they like. Climate Change is nature in action. Flooding, hurricanes, heavy winter snowfall, its all nature, and human beings have NOTHING to do with it. Lets hope that Wikileaks exposes more of the GW lies soon again.

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Global Warming is a myth and has become a new religion

Actually, the myth that has become the new religion is this: Billions of tons of carbon sequestration in the form of oil and coal deposits over millions of years can be dug up, and the carbon spewed back into earth's atmosphere in a matter of decades with no impact whatsoever.

This is what the global climate-change deniers would have us believe.

They're crazy.

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Global warming is real.

MANMADE Global warming is a scam.

As are MOST "global" theories.

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Er... as are MOST "global" theories that blame human interaction.

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I see I'm among the 62% who voted no.

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