Carbon tax

With all the talk about climate change and the provincial premiers' conference, I thought I'd weigh in on one issue within the climate change issue: a carbon tax.

I'm not going to address the question of whether or not human activity is causing climate change. It's a very complex subject that I haven't studied in much depth, so for the sake of this post, I'll boldly assume that the majority of climate scientists are right. (A side question: since evangelical Christians are typically taught to be skeptical of the theory of evolution, and sometimes the big bang theory and modern geology, does that make us more prone to doubting other theories--not contradicted by any common biblical interpretation--believed by the majority of scientists? Is our desire to trust God actually making us think we're smarter than everybody else? That seems arrogant, and arrogance doesn't jive well with Christianity.)

So, is a carbon tax a good idea? Some say it would unfairly pick on Alberta's oil industry, but I'm sure the demand for oil won't go away for a while, and it seems selfish to value the economy of our little province over the livability of much larger parts of the world holding many more people. And it might work better than existing regulations. Right now in Alberta, companies are expected to cut their emissions (or is it emissions intensity?) by a certain amount or face fines. If that's the main incentive to reduce emissions, there's less incentive to cut emissions further. Yes, many emissions cuts come from saving energy, which is an incentive itself, although maybe not a big enough one, considering how emissions keep increasing. And some ways of cutting emissions may not save money at the same time. If we tax all emissions, then there's always an incentive to cut emissions further.

Of course, if we're shifting taxation criteria more toward emissions and away from income, we'll need to make sure this system isn't tough on the poor. But I'm pretty sure we could come up with something.

Another interview

Want to get interviewed? Here's the idea:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better!
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

I interviewed Kate a while back, and now she's interviewing me. By the way, I also answered an interview from Elim last year, which you can read here. Here are my answers to Kate's questions:

1. You get a plane ticket that goes around the world. Like all great offers, it has a catch- you have to keep going in the same direction (so if you fly towards China, you can't suddenly turn around and decide to go to Japan), and you have to use it in a month. Where will you go?
Hmm. Tough one. Let's say a couple days in LA, a day in Seattle, 3 days in Australia, three days in Japan, 3 days in China, 2 days in Thailand or somewhere around there, 3 days in India, 2 days in Ethiopia, 2 days in Russia, 2 days in Israel, 2 days in France, 2 days in Britain, 2 days in Florida, and then a day in Manitoba, since it's close to home and I haven't been there in a very long time.

That's just a really quick list of some places I'd want to go, just thrown together. In reality, I think I'd prefer to spend more time in less places, but then I wouldn't get as much of my money's worth out of the plane ticket. Is it possible that I'd care so much about getting my money's worth that I'd choose a less pleasant, same-priced vacation just so I could say I got more flights for the same amount of money?

2. What was your favorite toy as a kid? Why?
I think I'll say Transformers or Lego. With Transformers I enjoyed turning one thing into another, and with Lego I liked building stuff and taking it apart, even if I built the same thing multiple times (the thing in the instruction book).

3. What are the 5 worst songs ever (in your opinion). Why?
This is the toughest question of the five. I think I'll have to list artists or albums, not specific songs. In no particular order, here are my picks:

• My grandma has a record by a German boy named Heintje or something like that. Just about anything on that record could be on this list. (Hmm. I just looked him up on Wikipedia and he's still making albums. I think my grandma must have his debut album.)
  
• Usually I can tolerate Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, and maybe even like some of their music. But if I listen to an entire album of either of them, I'd put some of the songs on this list.
• Anything from P.O.D.'s early albums. It's basically yelling without rhythm.
• I Hope You Dance. The song has a good message, but it's cheesy, and at one summer job I was forced to listen to EZ Rock way too much, and I think that song was popular then. But I think that song is still popular on that station.
  
• The Song that Never Ends, written by Norman Martin. Using it in a painkiller commercial was genius though.

As I was working on this list, I thought of a few that deserve honourable mention, but they're so amusing I couldn't possibly put them on the actual "worst songs ever" list. Here they are:

• Old MacDonald by Frank Sinatra
• Yummy Yummy Yummy by Ohio Express
• David Hasselhoff's cover of Hooked on a Feeling - the video wins the Worst Ever Use of a Green Screen award
  

4. What's the most surprising thing you've learned in the last year?
It's easier to find a girlfriend at Hickfest than at Bible college. Actually, for me, maybe that's not so surprising. I didn't enter Bridal College seven years ago with much for relationship expectations.

5. If you lost any of your 5 senses, which would be the worst to lose and which would be the least problematic?
I think the sense of touch would be worst to lose. I probably don't think about that one as much as vision or hearing, but it's so essential. Without that I think I'd feel so detached from my environment, and it would be so easy to damage my body without realizing it. I've heard of somebody who was born without the ability to feel pain and she scratched out one of her own eyes before her parents figured out a way to fasten goggles to her face securely.

I think the least problematic one would be taste. As much as I'd hate to be without some of the pleasure of eating, my sense of smell would still give me a partial sense of taste. And outside of eating, the sense of taste really serves no purpose, unlike all the other senses.

Dissent because of Love

I recently read something interesting about some parallels between Vladimir Putin's leadership of Russia and the leadership of Christianity's leaders. You can read it here. After talking about Russia's increasing success and Putin's suppression of opposition, this writer says, "The church, I think, is willing to sacrifice basic human and civil liberties for good and noble results. We prefer success or even just stability to freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is messy and unmanageable." He claims he is a dissenter because he loves the church.

Tonight I watched a movie about another person who was a dissenter because he loved the church. The movie is called Luther. Believe it or not, it's about Martin Luther. He stood up to a corrupt church that was taking away people's freedom and abusing its influence to make money. One thing I didn't realize before is that Luther also stood up to his own supposed followers who used violence to oppose the Catholic church.

This is one of several movies I've seen that makes me wonder how willing I would be to stand up to oppression (religious or not). Would I do it if it meant giving up a good job? If it meant losing friends and dividing my family? If a friend or family member was the oppressor, would I still be willing to oppose them, even if it led to some pretty bad punishment for them? Would I be willing to oppose my church and lose their approval? Would I be willing to die? Or would I keep doing what I'm doing because I think standing up to oppression would never work? Would I wait for someone else to stand up for the oppressed?

Some other movies that prompt thoughts like this, each in their own unique ways, include The Lord of The Rings series, Star Wars Episode 3 (Revenge of the Sith), and The Last King of Scotland. Are there any other movies that get you thinking about things like this? More importantly, what do you think might stop you from standing up to oppression? What might your excuses be?

Something for my readers with high blood pressure

I saw the World's Greatest Commercials at a movie theatre with Kate last weekend. This one here is probably my favourite of the bunch.