Tax the harmful, not the beneficial: Elon Musk bats for CO2 tax to tackle climate change

Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has advocated for a carbon dioxide tax to confront the ongoing climate change crisis.

Musk said in a post on social media platform X on Wednesday that a CO2 tax, if properly levied, would provide much leverage in solving the problems of the fast-rising CO2 levels.

He added, "If we do need something to tax, it should be something potentially harmful, instead of something potentially beneficial, as is done for vegetables and fruits, instead of tobacco and liquor."

The tech billionaire disagreed with those who believe that this crisis will be catastrophic in the next five to ten years but agreed that the long-term risk is very real, even if one views life simply at a given CO2 level.

He mentioned in a graphics attached with his X post that the ideal outdoor air is 400 ppm but the current levels are much higher than this, meaning they are at least 800 ppm as compared to the ideal of 400, and that things would go out of hand if the level transcended 1000 and above.