Saturday 18 June 2011

Climate alarmist: Carbon taxes could badly hurt tourism in the Caribbean



"New carbon taxes and levies on air travel could have dramatic influences on the flow of tourists to the islands"

At a recent conference in London,  a number of  "experts" have discussed how to respond to climate change in the Caribbean. Judging from this report in AlertNet, the the London conference was an almost exact copy of all other similar climate alarmist conferences - the "experts" were competing with each other about who could present the worst possible doomsday scenario.

Here are just a couple of examples:
  • With 70 percent of the region’s population and an equal share of its infrastructure along threatened coastlines, Caribbean nations could be spending close to a fifth of their GDP just to cope with climate impacts by 2080, said Murray Simpson, a University of Oxford researcher who has worked with the U.N. Development Programme in Barbados.
  • If the Caribbean fails to adequately prepare, it faces “perpetual recession under these conditions”, Leslie warned, calling adaptation to the ongoing changes “an imperative”. (Kenrick Leslie, executive director of the Belize-based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre)
  • Most countries in the region are feeling the pressure already. Farmers in Jamaica are seeing an unusual combination of increasingly severe droughts and hurricanes, leading to a gradual depletion of their financial resources. (David Barker, University of West Indies)
  • Shifting temperature and rainfall patterns also are likely to drive increases in tropical diseases like dengue and malaria, and worsen problems with heat stress and water-related diseases like cholera, said David Dodman of the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development.

However, Mr. Dodman must have amazed all the gathered alarmists with this statement:

New carbon taxes and levies on air travel, for instance, could have dramatic influences on the flow of tourists to the islands, he said.
“Regulations around trade and carbon are going to create very large shifts in our economies,” he predicted.

Dodman´s statement was a unique breeze of fresh air at a gathering of climate alarmists. But he will probably regret having said it. His fellow alarmists will never forgive him for having committed the mortal sin of pointing out the negative effects of carbon taxes and levies.

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