Tax on Breathing
If the government is given the right to tax green house gas emissions, most popular of these being CO2, what’s to stop them from taxing your right to breathe? As Jerry Hannan points out in his paper Your Role in the Greenhouse Effect,
“A human’s breath contains almost 5% carbon dioxide. Therefore, we are contributing to the problem with each breath we take. Every person’s output varies according to the amount of exercise taken, the food consumed, etc., but for the purpose at hand a reasonable figure is that each person exhales 445 liters of carbon dioxide per day (the average of 1000 samples measured by the USDA). In the course of a year this production by one average person represents 704 pounds of carbon dioxide.”
*These numbers can vary by who you are talking to, but typically range between 700 and 800 pounds, annually, per person*
Some will argue that the CO2 humans produce, by breathing, is somehow different than the CO2 produced by the burning of fossil fuels. That respiration is part of the “natural” carbon cycle. Last I checked, CO2 = CO2. Science doesn’t discriminate.
704 pounds seems like an insignificant amount if we evaluate these emissions on a person-by-person basis, but if we evaluate the planet as a whole we can estimate that humans emit just under 5 trillion pounds, or approximately 2,272 million metric tons of of CO2 per year JUST BY BREATHING! That doesn’t even count heavy breathing or exercise, which can produce up to 8 times the average. What about all the breath politicians waste? I’m sure their emissions significantly higher than average. Recall Strom Thurmond in his 24 hour 18 minute filibuster, way more than average.
You’re probably thinking, “They can’t tax my right to breathe” Huss! Fuss! Gruff! But this is exactly what the government wants to do to a corporation’s right to breathe. In a previous article, I mentioned how proposed GHG legislation would require refiners to purchase carbon credits for both the refining of oil into gasoline and for the emissions caused by the consumption of that gasoline in motor vehicles. That’s right, gasoline refiners would be responsible for the green house gas emissions of the cars that burn their fuel. Why shouldn’t the government, or god be responsible (and rightfully taxed) for allowing humans to produce GHG’s?
Far fetched, or is it?
I’m all for sustainable living and harmony with the planet. I do feel the global lifestyle at present is unsustainable, but change needs to occur through a better reasoned solution.
Assuming global CO2 emissions of 28,432 million metric tons, humans emit an additional 8% of that total through breathing alone.
Breathing Tax
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