Rain forests, global warming blah blah

Those that know me may be surprised to know that I am a great proponent of global warming, and looking for ways of saving the human race (the planet will be fine, it will just get rid of the human race, and start again).

The thing that we do is burn fossil fuels and dump CO2 by the millions of tons into the atmosphere. Then expect it to be soaked up by trees around the world. One of the biggest places being the Amazon rain forest.

For years we have been harping on about the Brazilians destroying their natural habitat, and the earths lungs (for those stupids out there, at a very basic level trees suck up CO2, and release O2). CO2 of course isn't the only greenhouse gas, and the complete picture is a bit more complicated than that.

But, I was listening to Costing the Earth today on Radio 4, where some Brazilian / Amazonian politicians / landowners were talking, and they were getting a bit sick of being told by the rest of the world not to tear down their rainforest, where they could make an income from it by doing so. Effectively they want to be paid for having the trees providing a service to the planet. Totally understandable.

The US has effectively deforested for the sake of urban expansion, and farming, and now expects Brazil not to do so.

So, a solution. There should be (another) tax on all fuel usage, to go, not to governments, but to a big global pot of money. There would be outcry, prices of other goods and services would go up as a result (perhaps there may even be less fuel usage as a result), but we all have to pay for using the Earth.

From there, all land owners who have trees should be paid for having trees, and maintaining and keeping trees instead of cutting them down. Whether this be countries / governments or individuals.

Hideously complicated and expensive I know, and 3rd world countries will suffer from land grabbers (previously worthless land will become an income source, and therefore attractive to politicians and other lowlifes), but a start nevertheless.

Many believe that we have already passed the tipping point, so maybe Hazel Blears was right - grab as mush as you can while you can.