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EU unveils sweeping climate change plan:
The European Union has announced a raft of climate change proposals aimed at pushing it towards its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.
A dozen draft proposals, which still need to be approved by the bloc's 27 member states and the EU parliament, were announced on Wednesday.
They include plans to tax jet fuel and effectively ban the sale of petrol and diesel powered cars within 20 years.
The proposals, however, could face years of negotiations.
The plans triggered serious infighting at the European Commission, the bloc's administrative arm, as the final tweaks were being made, sources told the AFP news agency.
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EU Unveils Sweeping Climate Change Plan
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She's so tough she won't take 'yes' for an answer.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bradley13 on Sunday July 18 2021, @12:43PM (19 children)
Apparently, the tax on aviation fuel exempts private jets. If the rest of the proposals contain similar exemptions, then this is a pile of hypocrisy. Typical of the EU Commission.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @12:59PM (5 children)
There's logic to it: if St. Greta has to pay aviation fuel tax every time she flies to conferences in a private jet, she won't be able to afford to save the planet.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @01:04PM
So remove the exemption for private jets, but allow people to buy credits from Al Gore to fund St. Greta's travels.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday July 18 2021, @01:53PM (2 children)
I thought she went by sailing boat?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Sunday July 18 2021, @04:19PM (1 child)
She flew to the boat.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19 2021, @10:24AM
At least get the facts right. *She* didn't fly to the boat. The crew that sailed it back did. I mean how lazy is it not to check these facts? Or they no longer matter, just what you feel aught to be the right talking point?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_Greta_Thunberg [wikipedia.org]
But whatever. The weirdo world is now inventing weird image of Greta like they did of Bill Gates because he dared what? Supports extermination of polio and measles? Did the elites with deep pockets in private hospitals lose their 1% from treating children paralysis and so they want to throw mud on Gates? Right wingnuts are the useful idiots here. Reality? What reality?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @05:48PM
If they ever tax hot air you're in trouble.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday July 18 2021, @01:54PM (8 children)
Yes, it seems a bit unfair, but what percentage of emissions come from private jets? Is it a big deal?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Unixnut on Sunday July 18 2021, @02:32PM (6 children)
> Yes, it seems a bit unfair, but what percentage of emissions come from private jets? Is it a big deal?
Same can be said for high end sports cars (Ferrari, etc...). They are rarely driven, don't do many miles, and as a consequence don't contribute much to CO2 output.
Same thing for private yachts. Many spend most of the year moored somewhere, or in dry dock, so don't produce that much CO2.
By your logic, we can exempt all of the above. What that does result in is a return to the feudal society. A "nobility" in all but name, able to enjoy jetting around the world, their cars, yachts and other luxuries, while the masses are forced and taxed into some peasant like existence.
Which is pretty much what the EU has been trying to do since its creation, so it is not exactly surprising, however it should not be something that should be quietly accepted, let alone justified.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday July 18 2021, @02:41PM (3 children)
It does seem like a very strange omission from the law.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Sunday July 18 2021, @02:46PM (2 children)
That is because the other stuff is already exempt :-)
This law change would introduce taxes where there were none, so they had to add an exemption. Not sure why they did it in such a ham-fisted way. Normally they are more subtle about keeping their privileges. Not sure if this was just a lack of diplomatic skill, or they feel that they are strong enough to pull it off brazenly and nobody will be able to do much about it.
Possibly this is a distraction, to draw attention to this exemption while allowing the "proper" exemptions to be passed. This exemption might be "given up" publicly later on, satiating the protests but allowing them what they wanted anyway.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @03:47PM (1 child)
"Ham-fisted" loses meaning in a society that increasingly see things in black and white. Increasingly in our society people and ideas are being clumped into false dichotomies - you are with us, or you are against us. The notion that somebody can support an idea, yet not support things claimed to be motivated by an effort to further that idea, is a notion increasingly lost on our society.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Unixnut on Sunday July 18 2021, @05:44PM
Hmm, I was going to respond with saying the "Black and White" society is a typically USA thing, where very much the idea of compromise is unheard of. Unfortunately it does seem to have been expanding beyond the USA to the English speaking world, so even the UK is having a similar attitude now. It does not bode well for a stable and peaceful society, because by its very nature, a society without compromise and tolerance of others must be authoritarian in order to suppress those others. You end up with two sides locked in a power struggle over who gets to control the machinery of state to suppress the other.
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Sunday July 18 2021, @09:18PM (1 child)
>some peasant like existence.
My knowledge of peasant history is limited, but AFAIK few if any had electric cars :-)
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday July 19 2021, @04:12PM
It's all relative, but as an example: peasants had restricted mobility.
Indeed most of humanity for most of history rarely were able to venture further than the next few villages from theirs. Back in the day only the nobility could afford a "Grand tour" of Europe, or to spend Summer down on the French Riviera or Italian lakes. Now millions of people do the same trip each summer, be it by train, car or plane.
The ability for Joe average to hop on a plane and fly half way around the world is a recent phenomenon. Something that (according to the powers that be) is unsustainable, so it must be curtailed for the masses, with exemptions only for themselves and the rich.
Electric cars are a good example, as they are almost in every way an inferior technology to what they are replacing. Their long recharge times and limited range make them far less flexible than ICE vehicles, thereby limiting the range a person can travel per unit time. They are more similar to horses than cars, where a horse could only travel a certain distance a day, and then would need many hours to feed and rest before you could resume, and whose range decreased with age (like a BEV's range decreases with battery age). While the ICE car was a fundamental step forward from the horse, the BEV is a step back to those times.
Sure, there is promise of magic energy storage capacity with sub 5 minute recharge time, 500 mile ranges and no capacity reduction with age, but until I actually see something concrete in production and available for purchase for the masses, I can't consider them.
COVID restrictions have also put a major dent in travel, but unless they find a way to permanently make international travel expensive and time consuming, that may return to normal. However I think their goal is to make it expensive enough to severely restrict international travel to the rich, and those who have to travel. I guess it would be somewhat a return to the "Jet-set" age of the 50's and 60's.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @06:45PM
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2021, @04:17PM (3 children)
This is a sumptuary law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumptuary_law [wikipedia.org]
The whole point of being a noble is to have & do things forbidden to commoners. Now the rich and powerful feel safe enough to openly write it into laws again.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Sunday July 18 2021, @05:58PM (1 child)
Hmm, I never considered it that way, very interesting. It could be that "Carbon emissions" will the new demarcation of peasant vs nobility. The nobles can enjoy a life similar to what they currently do, while the rest of us must accept a large drop in standard of living in order to meet whatever "carbon emissions targets" they decide to set for us. Things like restricted mobility, restricted energy usage, etc....
When you think about it, from the 1960's to present day never in the history of humanity have so many of us been able to afford what can be considered "high luxuries". The idea of jetting off to foreign lands once a year for summer holidays, then again for winter holidays, having multiple cars with large engines, large houses with AC, pools, etc... All things that consume a lot of energy per capita. Something that was reserved only for the richest once upon a time (even cars were once a luxury only for the well heeled). I guess those in power will push hard to reverse these gains from the masses.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19 2021, @10:48AM
Does everything in the world revolve around conspiracies for you? Seriously, WTF is the matter with your brain? You think the rich have some sort of penis envy of you being able to fly in economy to the next state? Did they have same penis envy when it was buses or cars instead?
Everything has become some weird ass conspiracy to you. Maybe try to learn there are actually problems that are caused when 7 billion people try to poop in a single lake. Maybe it works just fine with 1000, but not so well with 7,000,000,000. Ever thought that the Earth is a FINITE planet? That your live in a completely different environment from the ones of your grandparents? That we are literally heading for a shitstorm of our own making? And all you can come up with is a poor, shitty conspiracy about fucking PENIS ENVY!
You want facts?? Can you handle facts?
1. The rich own the companies that sell you services - like airlines, pool installers and construction companies. They make money when then you manage to squeeze your fat ass into economy. They make much more if you manage to upgrade yourself to wider seats.
2. The rich DO NOT like Carbon Taxes and the like - it causes uncertainty in their business regarding next month cash flow, you know, to them.
3. If you cannot afford something, the rich actually lose money.
4. The world is changing because we are using the air as a toilet.
5. CO2 is a pollutant - https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/mlo.html [noaa.gov]
Fertilizer is not a pollutant until it ends up in your drinking water and causes dead zones in the lakes and oceans that keep increasing. CO2 is the same. I was born when CO2 was 330ppm. Now it's almost 420. Remember when it made the news that it's over 400?
6. It's a big fucking problem.
You want real conspiracies? Oh wait, probably can't handle them so better invent Pizza-gate.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/01/edward-snowdon-conspiracy-theories-belief-powerlessness [theguardian.com]
This is exactly why you invent the bullshit you do. You somehow believe that someone wants to take your "high luxuries".... Reality is, no one wants to take your shit. Even better if you stopped throwing it in the hole in the ground and polluting your grand-kids ground water. Maybe then they will not have to invent a conspiracy why grandpa conspired with the 'elites' to poison my drinking water.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 19 2021, @12:11PM
You will not eat meat, but bugs, and be happy about it, peasant.
Now eat the bugs like a grinning dog!