[pp.int.general] Environmentalists and pirates, free information perspective

[Richard Stallman]

    Radioactive waste seems bad, but it can be reprocessed, to make new
    fuel from high-level waste.

Only a fraction of the waste is made of isotopes usable as nuclear
fuel.  The rest, not fissionable, is just waste.

Anyway, Amory Lovins has demonstrated that the same amount of money
can achieve much more reduction in emissions if invested in efficiency
or renewables than when invested in nuclear generation.  In other
words, nuclear generation is itself waste.

    The enviromental impacts of most things are usually overlooked though.
    The majority of a car's lifetime pollution comes from it's manufacture
    (doubly so for something like the Prius) and modern cars are not all
    that great

A tax on things that directly emit CO2, or imply emission of CO2, has
the advantage that there is no need to compute how much CO2 is made in
building the car, or in running the car.  The tax would be imposed on
things such as fossil fuels.  The car company would pay the tax
indirectly by buying such things, and likewise whoever uses the car
and buys fuel for it.

    A tax on activities that contribute to global warming may not have a 
    significant effect on the larger "offenders" who may well just pay the 
    tax and keep polluting.

It doesn't stand to reason that large businesses would be uninterested
in saving money.