Twitter/X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is pushing a carbon tax, ignoring not only science and the inevitable disaster of increased government control, but also the fact that his favorite country, Communist China, is the world’s biggest polluter.
“The only action needed to solve climate change is is a carbon tax,” was Elon Musk’s idiotic (and ungrammatical) comment on Twitter/X Feb. 3, as he shared a video of himself describing his plan for saving the planet. He added, “Keep tax revenue constant, but shift it to tax what is probably bad (CO2), just like alcohol & cigarettes are taxed more than fruits & vegetables.” In the video, Musk said we should tax carbon just as we pay for garbage collection, and cited that ever vague and undefined “scientific consensus” (which isn’t all against carbon anyway, as climate alarmists claim). Except that, as PJ Media’s Jeff Reynolds put it, “Carbon isn't bad. [And] CO2 levels aren't out of the ordinary.”
The only action needed to solve climate change is is a carbon tax https://t.co/mEGhIkSVsn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2024
The reality is that carbon is not a killer, nor is it garbage, but it is a life-giver — despite what climate alarmists claim, more carbon is good. Humans and plants (including food crops) are carbon-based life forms, meaning we need carbon to survive. There’s even evidence that increased carbon is a benefit for plants, including crops. So it would be idiotic to try to reduce carbon drastically.
Secondly, there is no impending “climate catastrophe” that needs solving. As Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 winner Dr. John Clauser recently declared, “I believe there is no climate crisis.” He has a lot of science on his side — and also the fact that climate alarmists have been wildly wrong for 50+ years in their predictions. In fact, there’s data showing the globe is cooling, not warming. Thus Musk’s whole premise is nonsense.
Then there’s the fact that increasing government control over the private sector is always a recipe for disaster — including increased authoritarianism, overregulation, and inefficiency. We already have too many taxes, such as would appall the Founding Fathers, and Musk wants a tax on something so arbitrary as carbon measurements? The Daily Signal recently summed up several of the harms a proposed U.S. carbon tax would cause, calling it an “inflationary, regressive tax on all products that would lower economic growth; make all Americans worse off; and disproportionately harm poor people, farmers, and small businesses.” Indeed, the carbon tax as described by Musk would likely be affordable only to the biggest companies.
Then there’s the fact that Musk shows no signs of demanding No. 1 polluter China reduce its pollution, perhaps because he recently expanded his business in China and loves to pander to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). While Communist China technically has rules to punish major polluters, the CCP consistently and brazenly violates its own environmental regulations. For instance, according to "The China Show," Chinese companies burn “recyclables” (electronics, etc.) on a large scale inside of buildings. Not only that, but China also takes on loads of waste (plastics, etc.) from other countries, disposing of them by simply dropping the waste in the middle of the ocean and coming back for more (both more waste and more money).
As of 2019, China reportedly generated more emissions than the entirety of the emissions of the rest of the developed world combined, and it hasn’t stopped since. This year the CCP upped its coal mining — reportedly by 306 new coal plants! So the CCP can pretend to be putting a price on carbon; it’s all for show, and anyone with the slightest knowledge of China understands that. But Musk has a habit of ignoring whatever he doesn’t want to know about Communist China.
A carbon tax is condemnable, unnecessary, and foolish on every level and from every angle. Until Musk can deal with reality, perhaps he should refrain from commenting at all.
