THE ENVIRONMENT: PRESENT AND PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE

Question: What’s wrong with those arguments?



Answer: Bad economics, and poor morals.

Bad economics: Much of the damage being done to the environment will be difficult or impossible to restore. And for what can be restored, the longer we wait, the higher the cost. Mainstream economics, markets, and voters have, unfortunately, a very short time horizon, and do not take account of future costs and damages. In present cost-benefit calculations environmental costs, that is, the cost of damage to the environment, are not counted. Therefore neither the private sector nor markets can be counted upon to remedy the situation: by the time markets will react it will be too late, or the cost of remedying the situation will be astronomical.


Morals: The environment is a public good, and investment in its maintenance and where possible, recuperation is, because of its importance for current as well as future generations, a moral duty. The millions of deaths that occur each year, almost all of them among the (very) poor and mostly, among children under five, are simply unacceptable.
Even less acceptable is that, if current trends continue, more suffering and death lie ahead.


The key problem is that there is simply no time to follow the path the rich countries have followed, that is, to first sacrifice the environment on the altar of economic growth, and only then start paying attention to our surroundings. Moreover, what’s the point of making the same mistakes the rich countries made? Contrary to, say, the 19th century and the first 60 to 70 years of the 20th, the knowledge and the technology to produce in an environmentally friendly manner are there. So why not use it?




source: http://home.wanadoo.nl