An Inconvenient Truth

[Izuno]

Two words: per capita.

Please continue arguing.

I reiterate.

[slicky]

I'm always so dismayed when i see 'hippy' types trying to affect change by demonstrations, picketing, and 'awareness' messages. The latter being the category of this movie in my estimation. As long as it's profitable to pollute for industry, it will continue to happen regardless of all public sentiment.

In economics theres a term called an 'externality.' It implies any cost of production a business has, which is a cost they do not face.

If theres a factory upriver from you, dumping tons of garbage effluent into the river every year, that factory is still creating that cost, but passing it on to the taxpayers in the town downriver who then have to pay for their waterfront to be cleaned up.

The government is supposed to be trying to force companies to pay for their externalities, otherwise their profits could actually be coming out of your tax dollars. If companies had to pay for every ton of carbon monoxide they pumped out their smoke stacks - not exorbitant rates, just what it costs to clean it up. It would motivate the market to innovate and CUT COSTS. In this case cut down on their pollution. You can't fight capitalism, greed wields too much influence, things can only change from within.

Skjalg mentioned the environment tax theyve instituted in norway, which is an absolute step in the right direction, so are any government taxes on polluting materials like gasoline that help bridge the gap between present profits and future misery. Coal should not be as cheap as it is.

[Izuno]

The core issue is time. In the long run, our ecology and our economy are the same. In the short run, we see as ecology and economy as distinct from one another and even in opposition. The reality is that short term, exclusionary economic gains often come at the cost of long term, ecological sustainability.

The question is, when will this all catch up with us? When will Economy = Ecology? Think about it. Isn't our economy most fundamentally dependent on our ecology today?

I have been reading a lot about this over the years. Try The Web of Life by Fritjof Capra

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/038547 ... e&n=283155

http://www.fritjofcapra.net/