Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Big Brother Time
So you've filled your tank with petrol, wiped the bugs off your windscreen, and you're standing in the queue holding two pieces of plastic which will finalise the purchase.No fiction, this is being proposed at that global warming conference in Montreal this week. So, how will my card account for my exhalations? -- Will my account be bigger if my respiration rate is faster? What about when I walk? I breathe harder and therefore exhale more CO2 when I walk. Will I have to swipe my card to use the toilet? -- There's a lot of carbon in that you know. What I about my garbage? -- I estimate that 85% of the stuff I throw away is carbon-based.
One card carries the logo of your bank; the other, a picture of a burning planet.
The first will deduct money from your bank account; the second, credits from your carbon account.
You cough up your money and your credits, get back to the car and on your way; your tank is filled, and, what's more, the planet saved from the uncertain fallout of man-made global warming
Oh wait, and how do they propose to enforce this? The carbon police? Will my garbage only be a misdemeanor, but my car a felony?
This is scary stuff.
