Many academics and specialists can be very one track mind, and it is important to look at global warming / climate change holistically.
I don't deny climate change and global warming. Climate change happens every day - just look at the daily temperature fluctuation. Human beings can tolerate extreme climate change. Air travel enables transporting travellers from the Pole experiencing below zero temperature to desert with sizzling high temperature in less than a day. With change of clothing, the travellers survive!
As for global warming, it is real from day one! Each year 4 quintillion Joules (4 x 10 to the power of 18 Joules) of solar energy reaches the Earth, but only 300 trillion Joules (3 x 10 to the power 14 Joules) are consumed by the world's population. There is plenty of energy left to warm the Earth. In fact, with 75% of the Earth's surface being covered by water, most of the heat is absorbed by the oceans. No wonder the ocean temperature keeps increasing, and indeed, the rise in temperature is caused by global warming!
Do we really expect the planet to get cooled? If so, what cools it and how is it done? Global warming is here to stay, unless human race starts to work on a reversal process in cooling the Earth, Kyoto Protocol and ETS are just band aid approaches.
Most scientists only concern about carbon dioxide as a green house gas keeping the Earth temperature warm. If carbon dioxide is increasing in the atmosphere, what gases are being replaced or displaced? Does increase in carbon dioxide affect the atmospheric pressure? How will increase / decrease in atmospheric pressure affect the weather, living things, including human beings on Earth?
One carbon atom needs two oxygen atoms to form carbon dioxide. Assuming the amount of gases in the atmosphere remain unchanged, oxygen on Earth will diminish. What is the repercussion with reduced amount of oxygen in the atmosphere, and in the meantime, the population is on the increase?
Hardly any ordinary citizen can remember the ozone hole, and no one is talking about it now. Ozone O3 is found mainly in the upper atmosphere. It absorbs ultraviolet UV radiation better than oxygen O2. UV radiation is known to cause skin cancer. Ozone depletion, supposedly caused by chlorofluorocarbon CFC, allows more UV radiation to reach the Earth's surface, thus putting human health at risk.
Interestingly though, chlorine radical present in CFC catalyses the conversion of ozone into oxygen, and thus increases the amount of oxygen that has been depleted by the process of oxidation of carbon.
There was no tax on CFC production, but there was a blanket ban on production and usage of CFC. I have not been able to obtain any data on whether there is any reduction of skin cancer as a result of banning the production and usage of CFC.
Will carbon tax help to cool the Earth? No way, it only makes the temperature of a lot of Australians including myself goes up and get really heated up which leads to further global warming, ha-ha!
However, the carbon tax will force the large carbon emitters to increase their production cost which in turn will pass on to the users of power, and the final sufferers are the Australian public at large. The financial compensation by the government only creates non-productive employments for paper shufflers and public servants, and sends the wrong message that it is alright not to reduce energy consumption.
Look up beyond the upper atmospheres and see how air exchanges can be improved. It’s time, Al Gore returns his Nobel Prize, and climate gurus and professors read more Chemistry and Physics books rather than just on climate reference material!