During the Middle Ages, the Catholic church sold “indulgences” that would absolve the buyer of his sins. Wealthy sinners could make a donation to the church and the clergy would let them know they were forgiven. Martin Luther was disgusted by the idea of salvation being put up for sale, and indulgences were an important facet of his Protestant Reformation.
Fast forward 500 years.
Cap and Trade is one idea to limit carbon emissions and slow climate change. The proposal makes carbon pollution an environment “sin,” and mandates good clean behavior. Sound familiar? But instead of the threat of eternity in hell, we have fines, and instead of indulgences, we have proposed “pollution permits,” that wealthy companies can buy to make their pollution OK.
I find this uber-liberal narrator uber-annoying, but she gives a good overview of the problems with Cap and Trade. And if both the climate-change-deniers and the hippies think it’s a bad idea, maybe it’s not that great an idea.
The moral of both the indulgence and cap and trade story is: if you have money, you can do pretty much whatever you want.
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