Carbon Tax Threatens Farming – You Know, That Thing Cows Do

Two Years ago, I finished the original series I did on the ramifications of what The Kyoto protocol was calling for, and that series, originally intended for maybe half a dozen posts morphed into more than 50 separate posts. Having finished I was looking for something further to post on, thinking I had just about said it all, and that, having done that, there was nothing left to say. That has proven not to be the case, but what that series did show me as I went to the numerous  sites that I used for references, was that this was something that the public was just not being informed about. There has indeed been a wealth of things to say on the subject, but at the time I thought that anything further I might say would be just repeating what I had already said. So, in looking for other things to post on, I did some general interest things, and one of those was actually related back to what I had previously been writing about.

That Post, ‘That Thing Cows Do‘ is at this link, and before reading on further, go and read that first. Up until that point some of my friends, and family for that fact, who had been reading my posts said that while the information was interesting, it all seemed a little far fetched. Luckily, all that information is now being borne out, and proven to be factual in every detail. However, when I posted this article, nearly all those friends and family members mentioned that this post was drawing a pretty long bow.

This in fact was one of those posts where I did make a factual error, (and there have been very few of those) so, when you do read the article, be sure and also read the Comment below for that correction of the text within the Post itself.

A further month later, still close on two years ago now, I then added to that post with a related matter on how, instead of eating the meat we have been eating for so long now, Beef, Lamb and Mutton, and Pork, we should be eating Kangaroo instead. Again, my friends thought that like the first article, I was drawing a long bow, and that the articles should have been tagged as Satire, and that they were said ‘tongue in cheek. The links to those two further posts are at this link, and also at this link.

So, why do I mention these three posts now almost two years later, when at the time they caused people to smile at me and mention that I was perhaps having a lend of them.

It all has to do with the introduction of a Carbon Tax, and again, how I hate that title. The alleged problem that they tell us concerns Climate Change/Global Warming, and it is not about Carbon, but about Carbon Dioxide, so their title is in fact erroneous, and while they ask us to accept the most complex Science on faith, they can’t even place the title of what they ask in its correct Scientific context.

In the U.S. they have in fact tried to disguise what was originally intended to be Legislation for Carbon Cap And Trade by calling the Legislation The American Power Act. As part of that Bill, they will be placing a price per ton on Carbon Dioxide emissions. However, that’s not the end of it though. They also listed other gases as well, and not just one or two, but a virtual plethora of them. These gases are emitted, along with CO2, only in significantly lesser amounts. So you think, they won’t be raising much money from those other gases, because they are emitted in such tiny amounts.

Wrong!, and wrong by a quantum level.

What they cleverly did was to give those other gases a cost level commensurate with their volatility when compared to CO2. Sounds complex. Well, not really. Methane is 23 times more volatile than CO2 as a Greenhouse Gas, so the cost per ton for emissions of Methane is the calculated at 23 times the cost of CO2. See the point now. In fact, some of those gases are tens of thousands more times volatile than CO2, even though they are only emitted in the tiniest fraction of what CO2 is being emitted. So, even though tiny amounts are being emitted, this legislation will still raise considerable amounts on those gases.

For context, at the $25 per ton just on CO2 alone, this Legislation will raise almost $280 Billion in the U.S. alone, and in Australia with a population of only 7.2% that of the U.S. the amount to be raised just from the CO2 content will amount to $24 Billion. (see the post at this link) If you think that’s a lot, then read it again, because that is the amount raised for each and every year. Add to that the huge amounts to be also garnered from the emission of those other gases.

Now, and here comes the crunch, this Legislation is already in place in other Countries, and, to coin an old adage, ‘The chickens are coming home to roost’.

In New Zealand, where this iniquitous tax is already slated for introduction in 2013, the idea that the general public had was that it was specifically aimed at those large polluters, and the emphasis here was placed on those filthy dirty rotten coal fired power plants. (Sarc off now Tony)

However, this one single and most startling case has come to light, and this is something that should be highlighted and bolded and brought to the attention of everyone who even contemplates that something like this should be introduced.

This is the link to that article from Business Day in New Zealand, and this is where it also directly links to the above text in this post about the three articles I posted two years ago.

A livestock farmer in New Zealand has calculated that to keep his stock levels up, then, to satisfy the Carbon Tax Legislation that they have introduced there, he will have to pay a tax to the Government amounting to $168,000 each and every year. This is for the belching and farting his stock do as part of his raising them for the wool and the meat that provide his livelihood.

This is not something that the farmer himself can regulate. This is part of what those animals do. They eat grass, they ruminate, they belch the Methane. You can’t train them not to belch that Methane, or to belch less of it. The farmer has to pay the price, or reduce his stock holdings of the animals.

If however, he decides to keep that same stock level, then that cost for their emissions would have to be recovered, and it’s not just this one farmer, but for all of them. To recover that cost, then the cost of the animals he sends to the slaughter House (to make the meat we all eat) has to rise, and those costs will inevitably passed directly down to consumers in the rise in the cost of that meat, and it won’t be a small amount, as shown by this cost of $168,000 for just the one farmer, but a very substantial extra cost on that meat. The same would also apply, in the case of sheep, for the wool that they produce, hence the substantial rise in the cost of clothing we all wear.

See now how any Carbon (Dioxide) Tax will cause rises in nearly every aspect of your daily life. You may think it’s aimed at those coal fired power plants, but it’s a little like a shotgun blast. It’s going to hit everything in its path.

The end result of all this will probably be that the farmer himself, unable to pass those costs onto the next level in the chain that takes the meat to the butchers will add up the beans and decide that it’s no longer worth it to keep raising livestock.

If all the farmers make that decision, and it’s being forced upon them, so they really have no say in it all, then it might get to the stage where we all do have to start eating Kangaroo. That being the case, the Animal Rights people will be literally crawling out of the woodwork to stop that happening.

You still may think this is drawing a long bow, but keep in mind that this is now in place in some Countries.

If you think this is being aimed at those so called big polluters, the coal fired power plants, then you are sadly mistaken.

While aimed specifically at the supposed emissions of Greenhouse gases, those gases are emitted from places you would even consider. As I mentioned in that original post, the total emissions from every car, bus, plane, train etc amount to only 13% of all Greenhouse gas emissions. From livestock alone, those emissions amount to 18%, more than for every mode of transport on the Planet. Then, who do they tax for those Greenhouse Gas emissions from Volcanoes, and from the Oceans. You may say that these are naturally occurring emissions so that doesn’t count, but that would be a rabid Green friend of the dirt environmentalist speaking, and when looked at specifically, it looks suspiciously like this tax is just being placed upon every target they can hit…..that is able to pay.

Gee, don’t we all breathe out Carbon Dioxide. It was once a joke that if politicians could find a way to tax the air you breathe, then they’d find it. This looks suspiciously like they have indeed the genesis of a very way to do just that.

Don’t just laugh this off as being a small amount, and from just one farmer. Add up all the animals on all the farm where stock is raised for meat to feed us, and you come to a considerably large amount of money. Keep in mind also that nothing can be done to make them belch and fart less, so this is not aimed at reducing those emissions from that source, so it will just have to be paid.

As I have said all along, this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the environment.

It’s just about the money.

Tagged: American Power Act, Carbon Cap And Trade Legislation, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions, carbon tax, Climate Change Religion, Climate Change Scaremongering, Farming, Global Warming Alarmism, Global Warming Hype, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Methane Emissions, Methane Greenhouse Gas

Posted in: America (USA), Australia, Blundering Bureaucrats, Climate Alarmists, Climate Change, Conniving-Lying-Sneaky Politicians, Democrats, Environment, Environmental activists, Fanatics, Fear-mongering, Fraud/Waste, Global Warming, Leftists (In the USA aka as Liberals-Progressives), Political Prostitutes, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Spine Donor Politicians