Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 09/21/2008 2:55:27 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
The recent economic downturn could push the European Union to adopt more modest ambitions in its fight against climate change.
Although the European Commission has said it wants to cut greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020, business leaders oppose the use of fines to oblige industry to reduce its emissions -- especially in the current economic crisis.
The cost to industry is estimated at some 44 billion euros per year between 2013 and 2020, with a tonne (1.1 US tons) of C02 costing 30 euros.
Business leaders have denounced the policy as a "tax", threatening to take their investments elsewhere and move their more polluting activities out of Europe.
Faced with the threat of job losses, governments are feeling the pressure.
"As the economic situation becomes more challenging, it's normal that government becomes more defensive on climate change as the required efforts will lead to additional costs in the short term," a senior Commission official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
A number of European politicians are now speaking openly about diluting, or even abandoning the project.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I guess there’s a silver lining in every cloud.
Unintended consequences alert!
Socialism is a failure...in theory and in practice.
The EU needs to give it a rest. “Global warming” has been debunked! Deal with it!
Oh, how awful. At least 9/11, bombings in London and Spain, Iranian nuclear saber rattling, and that Russian misadventure in Georgia didn’t do anything to interrupt their all-important mission to save us from global warming. Got to keep your eye on the ball.
“Now that people are waking up to the financial and economic realities; they will be taking a more critical look at the whole scam.”
When people see the costs to the bottom line, I suspect many will reevaluate the relative priority of their politically correct “green” attitudes.
Looks like it is already happening in Europe, because they are scaling back emission targets for that evil “pollutant” carbon dioxide.
I’ll bet that a significant portion of the population doesn’t even understand that CO2 is a normal component of the atmosphere and what they exhale with every breath. They probably believe that it is some noxious chemical discharge from power plants.
Here in the USA, the scientific knowledge of the general population is pitiful. I’ll bet the man on the street can only accurately describe the nature of CO2 about 25% of the time. If you told them that it is what makes the bubbles in their favorite soft drink, they would be horrified.
Ah, the “superior” Europeans. Just wait to see how much money they have to waste on carbon emissions after Sharia law takes over. Heh. They are truly getting what they deserve. As soon as we withdraw the last troops, they can enjoy the double wammy of both the musnuts and the Russians. Good look, loons. You’ve had one of the longest periods of peace with our help. Now try it alone.
a ray of hope indeed...
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