. . . if only Bush would tax accordingly; but sadly he is tied to the industrialist right wing, and is a lame puppet of international corporations . . .

Warbo,

Of course you know that I respect you, so you already understand that I'm simply lobbing an alternative virtual grenade your way just to remind that a coin has two sides ( and they're not both heads ).

I know that Europe is caught up in its socialist thing as well as denial by committee, and finally, that all things Capital and Corporate are evil ( oddly, all of this from a continent with a heritage of Empire and centuries of transgressions of its own). Yet of course, America is now the big bully on the block and the cause of all world woes. Oh yes, then there's President Bush -- evil incarnate and presumably stupid beyond all belief according to Ms. Pelosi and rabid media pundits on your side and ours.

But what are you guys gonna do when he's not the Executive in a couple of years? It would be nice if things were so simple, but in reality, it's a dead end argument mate.

Better to say that all of us living in the industrial west are a part of the environmental problem -- even those socialist/anrcho-environmentalist/save-the-tree and don't-wear-fur masses who drive to their protests in carbon-producing cars and peel petroleum-processed wrappers off of their healthy transfat-free granola bars.

We're all environmental hypocrites.

And don't assume that all of this warming is purely a product of Exxon or BP ( read that mankind -- a bit too anthropic for me as it makes it sound as if we're the ones who control this planet ). Mind you, I'm enviromentally conscious too, but I dabble in climate, & Earth science as well as things social & corporate. Truth is, there is indeed global warming, but no one can conlusively prove how it is really functioning, no matter how many movies Al Gore makes.

More to the point. I'm not surprised that in the future, airlines will be tagged with carbon taxes. But neither should one assume that all those folks flying up front are wealthy -- though business folks obviously make up a good chunk. And remember, airlines are the clipper ships of our era, and the ripple effect touches more shores than simply environmental ones.

But hey Peter, have a happy new year. Ditto to FTers.

Barry