Critics of carbon taxes, currently one of the most popular schemes for legally relieving people of their hard-earned money, are often dismissed as crazed doomsayers for suggesting that levies on carbon dioxide emissions — supposedly to save the planet from “global warming” — will have dire economic consequences for those subject to them.

The doomsayers, however, now have real-world evidence to back up their contentions. Australia instituted a carbon tax in the middle of 2012, and already it “is contributing to a record number of firms going to the wall with thousands of employees being laid off and companies forced to close factories that have stood for generations,” according to News Limited Network.

Over the last 12 months, 10,632 Australian companies have gone belly up, a number that is “more than 12 per cent higher than during the global financial crisis,” News Limited writes.

Experts say the strong Australian dollar is a major factor in these closures, but the carbon tax certainly isn’t helping.

“Australia has been taxing carbon emissions since July 1 of last year at a rate of $23AUD per ton,” reports the Daily Caller. “The system will become a full-blown cap-and-trade scheme in three years and will be integrated with the European cap-and-trade system.”

The tax has already hiked the cost of electricity to the average family by 10 percent. For businesses, which use much more energy, it’s even worse.

Grant King, head of Origin Energy, “said that up to 30 per cent of small and medium sized enterprises’ electricity bills stemmed from carbon pricing and other green schemes,” according to another News Limited report.

“There’s no doubt the carbon tax is driving higher electricity prices for businesses across the state,” Mike Baird, treasurer for the state of New South Wales (NSW), told News Limited.

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