Here is a simply idea that governments are going to make too complicated. We have a carbon problem, which may or may not be the case. We have a solution; we tax carbon emitters, such as factories and cars. We cap their level of carbon they can emit and then lower each year. If they surpass they have to buy credit from someone else or pay more taxes on it. Those that reduce more are able to get a credit for their reduction of carbon and sell it to others who have not. Sound great except where again does this help us now? So we have less carbon in future. What about removing carbon from the world now?

They have not let us down, they have an idea. They will capture carbon and store it deep underground in aquifers to hold carbon. Never mind, just a few problems, like all that construction, or what if it leaks or just how much energy would it take to capture the carbon in the first place to store it under ground. Both ideas are bound to not work, and mostly cause more problems than they need to.

We need to capture carbon? Assuming this is true, how about we go old school on this. You know full retro, all the way back to nature. Yes, nature. What is the best carbon capture means we have? Plants and trees. Take a car using gas. It releases so much carbon per km. This is easy to test. Then figure out how much carbon a tree will use to grow over time. Compare how many trees are needed to absorb the gasoline released carbon into the air. Add in the cost to plant those trees, the purchase of land and the general in efficiency of government generally and you have a real carbon tax. That not only will beautify the world, trees grow into forests, and in future we can harvest those trees to reuse that captured carbon in a sustainable process. The best part is this, the tree start to absorb the carbon in the air now, as they are planted, so no hopefully future plan that will have to kick in, many, many years down the road. The cap and trade will simply be abused, go ask Volkswagen for their real environmental impact and compare to what they programmed their cars to report. The carbon storage is wasteful in additional energy and resources, not to mention the carbon is then lost and not reused.