Belgians Ban BBQ
Katherine Mangu-Ward | April 3, 2007, 11:45am
OK, so it's not quite a ban. But there will be a tax on grilling in Wallonia, a French-speaking region of Belgium:
Experts said that between 50 and 100 grams of CO2, a so-called greenhouse gas, is emitted during barbequing. Beginning June 2007, residents of Wallonia will have to pay 20 euros for a grilling session.
But that's not the worst of it. If any wily Walloons are tempted to skip out on the 20 euro surcharge for their char-grilled wieners or steaks, they risk high-tech detection:
The local authorities plan to monitor compliance with the new tax legislation from helicopters, whose thermal sensors will detect burning grills.
To review: The state will be flying CO2-spewing helicopters over neighborhoods in search of telltale thermal images of CO2-spewing BBQ grills. Perhaps they can develop other, more efficient gadgets for their BBQ enforcer helicopters in the future, like smoke detectors or alarms that go off when in the presence of dumb novelty aprons.
UPDATE: Just foolin'. Details here.
libertreee | April 3, 2007, 4:51pm | #
"When I lived in a condo that had no central AC, but did have a balcony, I grilled every day in the summer. I have to imagine that there are some Walloons for whom indoor cooking in the summer is not a choice. I guess the microwave won't heat the place up too much. Enjoy your frozen meals, Wallonia!"
This post earlier today made an excellent point.
Because of Green taxes, most of Europe does not have air conditioning.
This may not seem such a big deal, except it was, actually. In 2003, the Heat Wave
in France, Germany and even So. England took over 35,000 lives, mostly the elderly.
Some blame global warming. Skeptics, myself included, believe it was the result
of a periodic artic jet stream anomoly that last occurred in 1972. It causes the jet
stream over Europe to essentially stagnate, and prevents cooler, moist air from the
Atlantic from passing over Western Europe, causing colder than normal temparatures
in the Baltic region.
In the US, without Green taxes, air conditioning is an affordable amenity that
is prevalent even in the colder Northeast and Great Lakes regions. Except for the
occasional public utility blackout, elderly deaths by heatstroke are a thing of the past
in the US.
The moral::wealthier is healthier, and the invisible hand once again trumps central
planning.
PS the French public health care system broke down completely that summer as
well.
MikeP | April 4, 2007, 1:25pm | #
cynical bastard,
I am being sarcastic. I don't believe global warming is the threat it is made out to be, and I relish the use of Albertan tar sands to fuel the environmental engine of the future.
Nonetheless, showing what a small fraction of the carbon cycle fossil fuels comprise does not negate the fact that the sum of a bunch of small but positive contributions over centuries produces a large contribution.
It is not the yearly input due to mankind that is interesting. It is the rising ppm of CO2 that is interesting.
Arguably, if higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere will cause catastrophic effects on humanity, we should do something to address them
whether or not humans had anything to do with them. Surely if an asteroid were going to pummel the planet, we'd do something about it. Only the extreme anti-human environmentalists would say we shouldn't interfere because it's part of nature's plan.
Look, I, as much as any of you, wants the science on climate change to be wrong. But bringing up the same well understood and easily refuted arguments again and again is simply counterproductive.
The conversation has moved on. And because the "do something about global warming" side sees nothing contradicting them but easily refuted right-wing science deniers, they don't think they need to talk to
anyone who disagrees with them. This shuts out the extremely powerful economic arguments against expensive measures to combat carbon emissions. That is where the global warming debate currently resides, and that is a debate those who believe in free markets can win.
