Canasia Sports

I think we're agreeing. I didn't mean to suggest (that I think you read
into my comments) is that because I believe in the science I also
believe the government should tax us. I don't.
I believe that we should be taking action, and the action should be
_base_d on the same scientific principles as the evidence. ie we should
do things that are predicted to help, not predicted to make money for
the government. In fact I believe that a taxation basis is very
unlikely to achieve the correct results because government is too
interested in vested interests to apply taxation in the correct way.
Hence their ease at taxing motorists (who have little collective power)
compared to their complete unwillingness to tax aviation fuel.

The main focus at the moment seems to be reducing CO2 output by
sequestration, nuclear power or whatever. I'd rather see active
measures to reduce consumption. The UK government ducked that one a
couple of years ago when they watered down a bill to make all homes
more energy efficient under pressure from house-builders.

There's a very interesting article in a recent New Scientist about the
lack of scientific rigour in social policies. For instance, random drug
testing in prisons (normal in the UK) actually increases the use of
heroin. However we still persist in doing it. The US government funds
programs encouragin teenage sex abstinence in the face of evidence that
they don't work and ignoring science-_base_d sex education classes that
are proven. There are many other examples.

Business as usual for politicians.

Phil

Ray Wach wrote:

You're right, Phil, politicians have never needed excuses. Until
recently we were ruled by the guy with the biggest stick, and his
justification was simply that he wanted the power and no one took it
away from him. With a few exceptions, no one thought that those in
power had any responsibility for the rest of us until recently.

But your last question bothers me because it implies things that are
not established. We should _base_ our actions on a balance of the results
expected and our responsibilities