What exactly do you think the government should do inregards to Anthropogenic Global Warming?

No, I've not changed my mind. I'm just curious on what you think the government could do that the private sector isn't already doing.

2008-08-01T15:53:41Z

Benjamin - That is an incredible list of ideas!

The only one I disagree with is:

"Taxes or carbon charges on fossil fuels"

I feel the government wastes tax dollars as it is, so to give them an idea to take even more taxes I'm completely against.

"Improved crop and grazing land management to increase soil carbon storage." - Wouldn't this be something farmers should be implementing themselves? So how would the government implement something like this?

"Restoration of degraded lands; reforestation; forest management; reduced deforestation." - I love this one!!

2008-08-01T15:58:09Z

QCNP58 - How do you think we could do this? "Enhance natural carbon sinks."

This was something I was thinking about myself that's why I asked some questions in regards to cultivating things that absorb CO2.

2008-08-01T16:02:09Z

hebe00 - Do you really want that much government control of your daily life? What would you think if they did that and than we find out that CO2 really isn't the culbrit after all? Or that we (I meant the world with this we) do lower our CO2 emissions to next to nil and the CO2 in our atmosphere still continues to increase?

2008-08-01T16:08:39Z

Dana - I need to do more research on Cap and trade. I feel I should know more about what that is, since the guy I had lived with for fifteen years talked about it, since he watched alot of finacial programs.

2008-08-01T16:15:44Z

James - You've mentioned "solar power stations in orbit" before and I'm trying to wrap my mind around the concept. Part of my problem is if these solar power stations are in space, how do we get the energy to the consumer?

I know how a satelite television gets it's signal. I understand how radios get their signal and how the signal on a celular phone works, but wouldn't we need more than a signal to get the energy we are collecting from the sun to people on the planet?

2008-08-01T16:23:12Z

Hannah's Grandpa - Great ideas! I especially love this idea: "Build bike lanes along major highways." - If I had something like that right now, I'd be able to ride a bike to work, since I only live six miles away from my place of employment. But I don't have viable bike route.

(If I worked downtown I would though, since there's an excellent bike path along a railroad track that lead's to downtown Minneapolis about a half mile from the apartment complex I live in.)

2008-08-01T16:25:27Z

Bob - It's nice to know you like the idea of encouragement over taxation.

2008-08-01T17:37:54Z

BB - I fully understand what your saying, since I feel the same way. But what I'm learning from some of these answers are some great ideas for possible government regulations. So if they look more at implementing some new regulations that they feel could help our environment I wouldn't object to that.

Like automobile manufacturers needing to build more fuel efficient vehicles.

or

Better regulations to make apartment compex replace appliances for more energy efficient appliances.

2008-08-01T19:28:21Z

Don - I ask you to really think about what you are suggesting. If we restrict both the amount of oil we pump out of our oil wells and the amount we import that will cause gas prices to increase even more. That will also cause essential items - Food and Clothing - prices to increase.

2008-08-01T19:33:51Z

You all are giving such good answers that I'm going to have a very hard time choosing a best answer. I wish I could award more than one answerer best answer for this question, but since I can't I want you all to know that all your answers were great and I feel the answer community will learn a lot from reading these answers.

Hannah's Grandpa2008-08-01T16:13:10Z

Favorite Answer

Increase rebates on alternative energy.
remove speed restrictions on Electric vehicles.
build bike lanes along major highways.
mandate alternative energy on all government buildings.
Replace all government vehicles with alternative fuel vehicles.
stop selling carbon credit to over polluting companies, and make them comply with the EPA mandates.

Anonymous2008-08-01T23:07:21Z

What the oil companies that are sponsoring this scam do not want. Build every new power plant nuclear and replace every coal, gas or oil powered plant that can not meet emissions standards with nuclear. Then start building solar power stations in orbit for the long term. Burning oil or coal as fuel is as dumb as burning food for fuel.

donfletcheryh2008-08-02T01:15:08Z

The most obvious first step is to restrict the amount of fossil fuel that can be imported or extracted. If it is imported or extracted it will be burned.

We can not be sure that reducing burning of fossil fuels alone will stop global warming, helpful as this would be. We also have to do something to increase the uptake of CO2 by terrestrial plants, which means make sure those plants, particularly trees, have enough water to do that job. This means that we need to provide structures to contain flood water and distribute it to our lands, including forest lands. We also need to reclaim all our waste water for forest irrigation.

We have megatons of ocean plant material sinking into the oceans and causing death of animal life as it decomposes. We can make our oceans healthier if we harvest that plant matter to be used as bio-fuel... This can and should be done by private enterprise, but because we are involved in international water we should consult with other nations on sharing agreements.

The need for cap and trade is largely eliminated if we restrict extraction and importation of fossil fuels, but cap, without trade option, may be needed to ensure we can still feed ourselves. If we can use someone else's share of the fossil fuel, we may be using the fuel someone else needs to produce or transport the very food we need. Wealth alone may not allow us to determine who is allowed to waste our fossil fuels.

bestonnet_002008-08-01T22:42:16Z

Ban new fossil fuel power plants.

Then we'll let the market decide what to replace fossil fuels with (though we'll probably find it's nuclear power).

I'd also remove all renewable energy subsidies (since they wouldn't be needed for CO2 reasons without having to face competition from new fossil fuels).

A carbon tax would also be nice although a ban on new fossil fuelled electricity with phase out dates of existing power plants would be better. Cap and trade should be avoided if possible.

BB2008-08-02T00:25:23Z

Nothing. Government will use the alleged global warming craze as a taxing opportunity. When the government claims that subsidies/funding for alternative fuels (or anything else for that matter) will not increase our tax bill but will be 'financed' by windfall profits taxes on .... in this case ..... oil companies, they (government) hopes that the masses will fall for it. When taxes and other expenses go up for any business.... we (the taxpayers) pay more for products/services when those expenses go up.

Keep the government out of the business of climate. If there is ever proof of 'man-did-it' global warming, the private sector will take care of it. Remember the government's last effort to 'fix' pollution ... ethanol??!! That boondoggle is costing us $$Billions and pollutes more than regular gasoline!!

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