What actions would you support to reduce carbon emissions?
4 is a shot in the dark and not likely to be useful. "Spend a bunch of money and hope." How long has it taken for new energy technologies to come online in sufficient amounts in the past? How long do we have? Globally, cap and trade seems to be the only sure-fire option for reduction, because it is verifiable to some degree. But it's likely completely unrealistic to get that agreement anytime soon. In the end, and it will make people howl, we need to make fossil fuel use more expensive. It's the only way to reduce use. That doesn't have to mean our energy bill is significantly more expensive though; it means we need to be prudent and efficient and make better use of renewable sources. (I've cut my electricity use in half in the past year, much of it through simple actions that did not reduce my quality of life one bit. Electricity could have gone up by 2x, I'd have the same bill, and the environment would be that much cleaner.) James Hansen had an interesting idea: http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2010/1... "The government must face the fact that fossil fuel use will not decline rapidly unless a rising fee is added to fossil fuels, a fee that should be collected from fossil fuel companies at the source before the first sale. Such a carbon fee will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices for fossil fuels. Therefore it is important that 100 percent of the collected funds be distributed to the public, preferably as a monthly “green check,” although the funds could be used in part to reduce taxes. This “fee and green check” approach would leave about 60 percent of the public receiving more from the green check than they would pay in increased energy prices. The objective is to reward people who reduce their carbon footprint and to stimulate the development of clean energies." It's an interesting idea, but I'm no economist, and I have no idea if this is plausible or not.
How common is the belief that climate change due to carbon emissions is a hoax among nations other than the US?
Understanding the fact behind Carbon Dioxide overload is not something that would tax the most uneducated people into understanding …in that end I have tried to make it as basic as possible :- from time immemorial trees etc. have been swapping gases with animals …including us humans and as long as the trees etc. outnumbered the mammals hugely it worked fine trees give off oxygen and consume CD its a great deal :-) about 100 years or so ago end of WW 1 there were approximately 1.8 billion people on the planet and the old deal was working fine … now rush back to 2019 there is 8 billion people and predicted to go to 10 billion by 2050 now pile into that mass of humanity their pets,food animals and wildlife into the mix and the demands on the trees etc etc. is increasing exponentially and what is humanity doing to those life giving tress etc. ? Clearing them …chopping them down at an ever increasing rate to the point where that great old deal….remember the one where we swap gases …it is now out of whack the CD outweighs the oxygen ….hugely and that is bad very bad and when it gets to a certain point …..kaput,done,finished all over !! So how can it be stopped ….its not rocket science but unless the mongrel capitalists can be pushed into adopting new technologies it is going to be very hard ..alternative energy is a great start, solar,wind and just wait until the new battery technologies are released in the near future …. :-) it will knock your socks off :-) Electric cars,trucks buses etc etc will help then we have left the biggest culprit and the easiest solution …imagine the big bogie man they are not talking about because it is the wealthy/politicians darling …flying…imagine the crap they spew out of those massive engines directly into the skies to pollute and poison all it touches …. then we have the cheapest solution, the easiest by far …. TREES … plant them plant them by the billions on every empty bit of land … in a perfect world we would demand that loggers clean up after they have harvested their timber and replant 10,20 30 times more than they harvest but as always they react to the damned bottom line ….At what point do these clowns sitting in their board rooms on the zillionth floor realize that you can’t eat money you can’t breathe money ….Oligarchs steal billions at the expense of the people way more than they could spend or need but if the environment goes down the drain …what’s the point ? ….what’s the bloody point !! :-( :-(