Go green or pay the price! - Gen Y's take on the carbon tax.

The carbon tax has been a hot topic for quite awhile and one of our employees, Daniella Serret wrote an article about it as part of a university thesis. She's tweaked it for a Conduit audience and considering that Gen Y will be impacted by the carbon tax for the majority of their financial gaining years, it is intersting to see their opinion on the matter.

Go green or pay the price

by Daniella Serret

The carbon tax: changing the world for a more sustainable future. Or at least, that’s what we’re meant to believe.

Surprisingly, a lot of Australians aren’t completely clear on what the carbon tax is exactly and how it directly impacts their lives. So, in basic terms, here’s Carbon Tax 101:

• The top 500 highest carbon-producing companies in Australia will be taxed for every tonne of carbon they produce. As a result, the companies will raise the prices of their products to offset this tax.

• That tax money will be received by the Government who, in turn, will make concessions for (certain) taxpayers to compensate for the added tax.

The whole purpose for this carbon tax is to force businesses to lower their carbon emissions, thereby going ‘greener’. The expectation is that businesses will comply and lower their emissions. However, there are other options available to them. They can layoff employees to reduce payroll costs or move their business offshore to non-carbon tax countries which will spell disaster for the Australian employment industry and economy.

Additionally, since the majority of people aren’t going to see any market signal changes in their day-to-day lifestyle, they will not change their behaviour. This leads them to continue to consume the same products and services that are in turn producing the carbon dioxide pollution. Whilst the government intends to compensate certain households (namely lower income, retired and pensioner households), those who aren’t compensated will bear the responsibility of making change amongst the populace. They will cut back on non-essential items and change their lifestyle choices however, this will in turn impact the economy due to their lack of product consumption.

Essentially, no matter what happens someone loses. For this reason, plenty of people resent the implementation of the carbon tax. But, looking at it from an environmental point of view, it has its advantages.

The carbon tax debate has put environmental issues into the spotlight, which is a positive thing considering it has made people aware of the small things that they can adapt into their lifestyle. And it’s common knowledge that if the world continues to harm the environment through man-made means, we’re looking at a very unsustainable future. Think Steven Spielberg’s Terra Nova pre-time travel.

If Australia takes no action by 2020 our carbon pollution could be 20 per cent higher than in 2000, not 5 to 25 per cent lower as the Australian Government intends. But this change has been estimated to result in a reduction of 0.0007 degrees, a change so small that it cannot be measured in the environment.

If we were to convert carbon pollution to a kilometer in length, the carbon dioxide that global human activity puts out equates to 12 millimeters in length. Australia’s contribution to this is a mere 0.18 of a millimeter.

Basically, we are going through all this upheaval to funnel more money to our Government (of which only a small portion is being returned to the populace) all to change 0.18 of a millimeter. In the grand scheme of things, if the world is going into environmental meltdown, Australia will be going too despite our valiant saving of 0.18 of a millimeter of the environment.

Conduit is dedicated to being an environmentally friendly office and we encourage you all out there to do the same. Google “Environmentally friendly lifestyle choices” to help aid the cause. However, there are better causes to lend our attention to which we can change/save/protect rather than marginally impact.

For example, instead of bulldozing acres of the rainforest, which aids carbon dioxide pollution, we should be preserving them as that has a far higher impact on carbon pollution than our carbon tax system.

Additionally, in working against deforestation, we are saving the lives of countless species of animals and flora. Check out http://www.greenthefilm.com/ - to see just how much deforestation impacts our lives and the environment then compare it to our 0.18 of a millimetre.

At the end of the day, being environmentally conscious is a necessity in today’s society but let’s be mindful of the best way to protect the environment instead of our Government.

Article written by Daniella Serret