Already much worse trhan carbon tax would be

One of the main arguments that is mentioned to me against imposing a carbon tax is that it would have a huge impact on tourism.

Well, here I am, sitting in the beautiful city of St Petersburg in the same clothes since yesterday, having arrived yesterday - but Swissair and SAS between them managed not to bring my luggage on the same flight.

Not only that, but I have wasted a huge amount of time trying to track down my luggage - most of the time, frustratingly, trying to get through to the Lost Lugagge Department's telephone number - which seems permanenty engaged.

BTW I am not sure why it is called the Lost Luggage Dept, as the airline knows precisely where my luggage is, and the only problem is that the airline did not put my luggage on any flight till now.

If I was the only person to whom it happened in the last week, I wd just put it down to bad luck or something.

But as it has affected at least 10 out of the 100 people in "my" group here.

Just as the "inner London tax" has reduced vehicular traffic into london by about 25pc, so its possible that a carbon tax would reduce air traffic to the sort of level that can actually be coped with by the existing systems of logistics in relation to baggage.

Certainly, from the viewpoint of anyone in a similar situation - with money and time and effort already spent, the frustration of dealing with systems that don't work, and the disappointment of expectations regarding an enjoyable holiday or potentially profitable business meeting - the existing lottery regarding the random distribution of the sytem's inefficiency is worse than any carbon tax. Sphere: Related Content