We're obviously in a recession/depression right now. Is this the right time to be introducing yet another tax and government overburden?

As an owner of a small business with a myriad of employment and tax forms to complete, I think I'm going to completely flip if the Federal or State Government sends me another mandatory form to fill out to talk about my carbon footprint.

Given that the Federal and State government have given me zero help in my business (and I'm not asking for any), the last thing I need is more government meddling in my affairs.

The most important thing government could be doing for businesses (and small businesses) would be to remove the 7.5 percent employer's FICA match. For every dollar we pay ourselves or our employers, we have to fork over a 7.5 percent tax to the government.

If the government were willing to eliminate this tax, I'd gladly fill out a one page form regarding my carbon footprint.

Then I'd have more money to pay myself, pay employees, and fund capital purchases to get this country going.

Isn't it nice that large companies can afford a carbon tax? Hmmm.

For the last 50 years, people been paying artificially low prices for products and businesses have been reaping the profits.

Because we as a society did not clean up or take responsibility for the environment as we went along,(whether its climate or pollution or water supply or fisheries), we will now have to pay for all that retroactive stuff- as well as bake new processes into our business cases going forward. We can't make the profit from using cheap fuel and not cleaning up our mess, and then complain when we are asked to make it right- we should have thought of that sooner.

Making environmental issues an externality to business decision making was short-sighted and selfish decision- both by poorly informed free marketers and business leaders.

Luckily, there are a lot of businesses now leading the charge, instead of being in denial- Ceres BICEP group, for example- eBay, Nike, gap, etc.

The latest scientific information is worse than anticipated, at the same time Americans are in denial about climate change more than 2 years ago. And what's the break down? According to Gallup, 66% of Republicans and 22% of Democrats believe that climate change risk is exaggerated.

The leading scientists from 189 nations have weighed in. It's the time for all of to take action, to change our purchasing and energy consumption and waste habits- and move beyond short term, individualistic thinking. We are stewards here, and need to start acting that way.

Paperwork or not.

I am a bit skeptical of carbon trading. Do we really need to turn this soon to be trillion dollar market over to Wall Street speculators?

I think an easier and more effective system would be a carbon tax with 100% refund. All carbon would be taxed at the source and 100% of the money would be refunded on a per capita basis.

This approach would increase the cost of carbon leading to decreased use. The tax would effectively be paid by people whose lifestyle emits more than an average amount of carbon.