[pp.int.general] (no subject)

[Richard Stallman]

    The same concepts could be applied from the government, tax cars and
    oil? tax products transportation? educate the people? only allow
    biodegradable packaging.

These policies can really make a difference.

If a few people buy less of something, the price will go down a little
and that will encourage others to use more of it.  However, placing a
tax on it will encourage everyone to use less of it.

It is not practical to tax the actual burning of fossil fuels since
that is done by millions of motorists as well as thousands of
factories.  Instead I recommend a tax on fossil fuels, and a few other
things which, when used, will result in greenhouse gas emissions.  For
instance, there could be a tax on cows, collected annually based on
the cow's weight.

This tax implements the principle that the polluter pays the cost
imposed by the pollution.  As long as this is not the case, there is
an economic incentive to dump greenhouse gases into the air and let
others suffer the harm.  Users influenced by that incentive are not
interested in investing in increased efficiency of their own
operations.

If the tax rate starts from zero and rises gradually over a period
of a few years, that will avoid transients.

Part of the tax money could be given back to every person equally, so
that poor people would not be crushed by the added tax.  Poor people
would, however, feel the pressure to conserve on fuel; those that do
will have more money than before.  Those that are profligate with fuel
will have somewhat less than before, until they learn to conserve.

This tax will encourage all forms of renewable energy, but they will
still compete with each other.  Thus, the state won't need to choose
between solar panels and solar thermal power (and other methods); the
market will choose.

A feed-in tariff, allowing everyone to sell electricity to the grid,
is a good policy too.  But that alone won't do the job.  It won't
affect emissions from transportation, for example.

Educating the public about global heating is essential so that they
will understand the need for action; however, that alone won't
deal with the problem.



--
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
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