I am merely being Hypothetical here but assuming Global Warming was happening do people think that the idea of Carbon trading permits could function in an Anarcho Capitalist society? Maybe as a form of air property or something odd like that. Basically what I am getting at is what would an Anarchist society do in such a possible scenario and it does not have to stick to Carbon permits as the only solution. To be honest I myself am skeptical of the hysteria surrounding the global warming crowd BUT I would find it interesting what you folks think would be a solution in such a scenario.
No. In such a scenario, air would be treated as a scarce good, but it doesn’t follow that you can trade permission to pollute any air you feel like. It wouldn’t make sense to introduce a free-market traded “assault voucher” so, on the assumption that carbon release is actually harmful, we can’t trade vouchers to do that either.
There would be no permits because as long as the government hasn’t nationalized the atmosphere there is no need for such permits. What would likely happen is that in cases where specific and identifiable polluters could be proven the source of some material harm, their pollution could be stopped or they would have to compensate people for their actions, But, in the case of global warming that wouldn’t happen as it’s impossible to pin the warming on any individual or clearly defined group to which responsibility can be assigned. As such for polluters who already existed nothing would be done. It’s possible there would be pressure from people for businesses to sign contracts that would restrict their GHG emissions, but that is something that would evolve over time. And to the extent that left any percievable problem that needed to be dealt with, people would deal with it. They’d build more air conditioners, or release some GHG neutralizing agent into their air, either on their own hook or through some other means.
But if you’re looking for ammo to use against environmentalists in arguments, don’t bother. They don’t care about the environment, an effective free market solution does not matter to them. Their ideology is at heart just an expression of collectivism. That’s why no matter what the problem, be it global warming or cooling or anything else, the only solutions they will allow for are central planning, command and control in nature. It simply does not occur to them that people can solve an ‘aggregate’ problem by simply pursuing the betterment of their own individual situations.
That is true. Many so called environmentalists are some of the most group think people I have ever met. I have several friends who are down right nutty about it and have no idea how violent their views are. The one thing that has worked when I argue against them is when I bring their ideas into view with how Anti Human they are. None of them have any children or nieces or nephews where I do have three nieces and one nephew, and as we all know growing children need medical attention which most certainly is powered by ever cheapening energy. When I explain what their anti technological views would do to human babies they always pause and tend to have nothing to say after that. Destroying our fuel and technological improvments (which is really what they want to do) would lead to lowering health and possible deaths of hundreds upon thousands of people, especially the elderly and children. They just never want to admit that gowing wealth is a positive thing for society since the people who benefit the most from better standards of living are the weakest among us. They remind me of a bunch of misanthropic monks intent on forcing their view of life upon the rest of us.