In the previous note, I could have chosen to parse some phrase other than The True North Strong and Free, but I wanted to avoid offending readers by challenging their beliefs. Canadians tend to be mildly nationalistic and are unlikely to walk away from an eccentric rant about the national anthem. The metamessage, that ideas are fallible and incomplete, had nothing to do with patriotism. Anyway, I guess you weren't put off because here you are looking for another dose of pithy prose.
This time, be warned, I'm going to dip into the evidence and the politics around carbon pricing in Canada, "axe the tax" and the "carbon tax rebate", two potent ideas begging attention and votes. I hope your party looks good in the spotlight.Reader discretion is advised.
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There, the others are gone. Now it's just us and we aren't worried. We know that political ideas aren't real, don't we. Or do we? I have a few things to say about that.
An idea is a real emergent phenomenon arising from communication between minds, information riding along on various material media: from brain to voice to brain to print to brain to newscast to brain, and so on. Without the need to communicate, ideas would not exist. We would be hermits living alone, hunting dinner with a stick because there would be no one to show us a better way, no SUV to get us to the grocery store, no climate change, no looming end to the anthropocene, no government with no plan to fix things, no voters to convince, and no taxes. Sounds delightful. Where's my stick?
Yes, but it's nice here in our house whatever the temperature outside, and I'm hungry, and I have to communicate or depart to the wilderness. So I have ideas and a blog instead of a stick.
Besides being real itself, an idea is an imperfect representation (in words or other symbols) of something else real like the events behind what we call climate change. To be clear, the idea Climate Change is about something real that cannot be accurately or completely captured in words or models. Awareness of the discrepancy between reality and idea causes some debate. We know lots about climate change, but we don't know it all and we've never fixed this problem before so we don't really know what we're doing. Putting a price on carbon is one way some governments are trying to fix things. Let's see if it works. But first there is an election (October 20, 2025 at the latest in Canada) and whether a party promises to axe the tax or continue a carbon tax rebate could help decide the next government.
Knowing the intention behind an idea helps in decoding the meaning. If the intention is to reduce the disastrous effects of climate change, the government might put a price on carbon to redirect energy consumption to low carbon sources. On the other hand, if the intention is to win votes, the government might axe the tax or give a carbon tax rebate because reducing the cost of living or providing some income support will make voters happy...until their town burns in a wildfire or the drought drives up the cost of corn or a flood drowns cattle and there's not enough hamburg to go around.
To be pragmatic, an idea might have unintended effects. In the sophistry of parliamentary debate, the government gets the blame for everything wrong in the world, including wildfires and droughts and floods and the cost of living. That isn't the intention of those who want to win an election. They want power and glory, not blame. When you win an election and wake up in question period not knowing what you are doing, that's a politician's nightmare. Quite unintended. Before we make promises, invent slogans, spread conspiracy theories, and call people nasty names, we should pay attention to the evidence and save everybody some grief. Opinions, rhetoric and clever names are not evidence. Evaluate the evidence.
Finally, both the idea and reality change. Noticing the results of actions nudges ideas closer to reality and actions based on ideas may alter reality for better or worse. Evidence can help. Here is some evidence about carbon pricing in a 2020 WEF report. Look at the evidence,
vote for the carbon tax rebate,
go electric and hope for the best.
Or ignore the evidence,
axe the tax,
and cruise to the crash on cheap fuel.
We have a say in what happens next.
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The Most Important Facts: Aaron Wherry, April 2023
How Carbon Pricing Works: Government of Canada
Climate Change Data: Statistics Canada
Social Cost of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Government of Canada
What's Behind the Carbon Tax and Does It Work : Benjamin Shingler, CBC News
The Carbon tax Debate: Aaron Wherry, CBC News