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"Carbon will be the world’s biggest commodity market, and it could become the world’s biggest market over all,”
Chris Leeds, then-head of emissions trading at Merrill Lynch, said that, carbon could become “one of the fasting-growing markets ever, with volumes comparable to credit derivatives inside of a decade.”
If carbon is, at some point in the future, to become the “world’s biggest commodity market”, it is worth asking who will benefit from this recently created commodity. Commodity trading is hugely profitable, not least because traders make money whether the price goes up or down. For them, the current economic crisis is an opportunity. And they can manipulate the markets of the commodities in which they are trading.
For many commodities traders, the most profitable ploy has been the squeeze, which involves driving prices up or down by accumulating a dominant position.
The reason for the interest is much simpler. The outstanding value of carbon permits will almost certainly run into the trillions of dollars once the system is fully up and running. The annual trading in these permits and various derivative instruments (e.g., options, futures, swaps of various types) is likely to also run into the trillions of dollars, perhaps tens of trillions.
A market that trades $10 trillion a year would generate $25 billion a year in revenue, if fees and commissions average 0.25 percent. If Goldman can capture 30 percent of these trades by getting in on the ground floor, then it stands to generate more than $8 billion each year in revenue from carbon trading. This is enough to explain Goldman’s enthusiasm for cap and trade — it’s all about as clear as it can possibly be.
Scientists have new plan to fight global warming: Dimming the sun
While Exxon’s own scientists and research were 100% aligned with the expert consensus on human-caused global warming, the company simultaneously funded a campaign to manufacture doubt about that scientific consensus.
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science found that groups with funding from corporations like Exxon have been particularly effective at polarizing and misinforming the public on climate change. Since 1998, Exxon has given over $31 million to organizations and individuals blocking solutions to climate change and spreading misinformation to the public.
originally posted by: underwerks
I’m not a climate scientist, so I’d be out of my element trying to describe the complex systems that influence climate on this planet. What I can do is look at the people who fight so hard against the general scientific consensus.
While Exxon’s own scientists and research were 100% aligned with the expert consensus on human-caused global warming, the company simultaneously funded a campaign to manufacture doubt about that scientific consensus.
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science found that groups with funding from corporations like Exxon have been particularly effective at polarizing and misinforming the public on climate change. Since 1998, Exxon has given over $31 million to organizations and individuals blocking solutions to climate change and spreading misinformation to the public.
Link
Exxons own scientists agree that humans are driving climate change, and they’ve been saying it since the 1970’s. Yet they’ve spent around $31 million combating their own scientists findings. Whether or not the sun and space weather effect climate change is irrelevant when we’re discussing the human impact, which there is ample evidence for.
What’s more likely? That regional environmental groups are spending their limited budgets in a massive conspiracy with 90% of the worlds scientists to create a worldwide hoax and crash the global economy..
Or big oil companies are spending their obscene profits to bribe anyone they can to protect their businesses and limit any future liability their pollution may cause?
originally posted by: AM10101
It's both. The earth goes through periodic changes on it's own due to a billion different factors. We also have become a factor with our industry. If anyone seriously thinks we've had zero impact on the planet with what we pump out in in different pollutants and that we can just do whatever we want with no consequences then I don't what to say.
The planet is changing but we don't have to give it a boost. We're going to need that time to adapt just like our evolutionary ancestors did.