Carbon: The backbone of life 

Carbon is the smallest atom that has four bonds. It can connect with many other atoms to form large molecules. All life are constructed from carbon molecules. Carbon is the backbone of life. 

Carbon is an unassuming atom.  Most of the time, it forms the interior backbone of the molecules. Other atoms, such as hydrogen, decorate the exterior of the molecules. It is owed to carbon that we humans exist in this world.

Somehow in the last several decades, carbon becomes an unforgivable criminal in the mainstream society. What is its crime? The rising CO2 level is raising the temperature on the earth. Is warming a bad thing?

More than a hundred years ago, Swedish scientist, Svante Arrhenius, conducted some early research on global warming. As a man lived in cold Sweden, he naturally thought warming brought by the increasing release of CO2 is a great thing.

Today, people still prefer to live in warm places. Canada is larger than the United States. But its population is only about one tenth of its southern neighbor. Inside Canada, most people live along the southern border, where temperature is the highest.

Is rising CO2 level that bad? CO2 is the main ingredient of plants. With higher CO2 level, plants grow better. Crop yields are higher. People are better fed. 

Are warriors against global warming truly concerned about rising temperature? They live the most extravagant life. Their carbon emissions are much higher than the ordinary people. These people try to cover up their wasteful lifestyle by promoting various types of carbon offset schemes, which all turn out to generate additional carbon emissions. After been exposed, these carbon offset schemes fold up quietly in the end. 

The warriors against global warming are the biggest consumers of resources. They themselves contribute most to global warming. Why they promote the cap on carbon consumption? 

As a group, these biggest resource consumers are past their prime time. Their ability to control and consume resources are declining. Imagine a hunter. He has been killing a hundred bears every year for a long time and made a lot of money from that. But he has past his prime age. He find it increasingly difficult to hunt any more. Through scientific research, he finds hunting is bad. He wants to curb hunting.

The best way to achieve anything is, not surprisingly, through market. He designs a cap and trade system on hunting. The cap on each person is based on the quantity of his past hunting. Those who hunt less in the future can sell their quota to others. Many people are too poor to buy a hunting rifle. If they make enough money to buy a rifle in the future, they need to buy hunting quota from those who had hunted a lot in the past. 

In this way, those who had hunted a lot will remain wealthy forever; those who hunted little will remain poor forever. What a fantastic idea!

Reference

http://www.co2science.org/