>>Economics is what is needed to make China and India, etc., cleaner. It makes no difference whether I allow you one or a billion new laws, you cannot make a meaningfully cleaner environment by new laws without economic improvement.<<
Well, that's their excuse. They shouldn't have to make industry clean up its act because they are economically backward. But the calculus is short-sighted. Pollution causes death and disease, of man, animals, plants, insects, the whole biosphere. Pollution also damages buildings, and other man-made artifacts. If a manufacturer saves millions by polluting, but causes billions of damage to the environment, was that a reasonable economic choice?
For the manufacturer, maybe, but not for the rest of us.
As for the argument that "extinction happens," sure, but what I am talking about is preventable. |
