Why the ETS is STUPID! -letter to Editor

It is politically motivated and is based on false conclusions derived from fraudulent practises. Climategate is one example. The UN IPCC is supposedly firing those who have made it look stupid over climate change. I doubt they will go far enough and fire the lot. The primary scientists have admitted warming to date has been due to natural causes, not human based.

Taxing human produced CO2 will not alter the climate as CO2 is a bit player in climate change. The govt.s own literature shows decreasing temperatures since 1998, in spite of increasing CO2. Scientists predict this will continue until between 2030 and 2060. This is not a short term glitch. Obviously something else governs climate change.

Claiming carbon credits on forestry is a disaster, both individually and nationally. A short term gain will likely end in long term pain. Farmers who claim and sell credits will be leaving their descendants a potential time bomb, and land that can never be sold. Nick Smith claims $666 per hectare per year is available to those who sell their credits. $666 by 25 equals $16,650 liability per hectare. Who would want to buy land that has a carbon credit liability like this, let alone one 5 to 20 times what the credits were sold for. Also who will be responsible for repaying those credits if land use changes? When does this responsibility end? I predict this land will become worthless, with a liability in excess of its value. The only reason to sell credits now is if you are 100% positive the price is going to collapse and you can make money from others stupidity. The govt. has set the price at $25 a tonne, it is currently selling at $18 to $20 a tonne. In the US it is $0.10 a tonne.

Nick Smith is 90% sure CO2 of human origin is causing climate change. That is not good enough. It is based on the coincidence of rising temperatures and CO2, but ignores the fact that temperatures have fallen while CO2 has increased. It also ignores evidence which shows the variability of climate over the centuries. In the last 2000 years the climate has been warmer and colder than now. 200 years ago the earth began climbing out of a 500 year mini ice age. Warming was to be expected. We have not come close to temperatures prior to the little ice age.

This ETS is STUPID and reveals how divorced from reality some politicians are.

Alan N