There is a lot of discussion today about our impact on the planet. As we manufacture goods, and consume natural resources, we are using a “free good” – our resources, our bodies of water, our soil, our forests, our sky and who happen to have no “owner” and thus no consumption cost or tax. Should we ask ourselves what the cost of using all these resources is? How so? What if we damage these in such a manner that it will cost our children more to “consume/use/clean” them than it cost us? What if we damage them to a point that our children can’t use them anymore? What if we use them to a point that have side-effects: like hurting other natural habitats that are used by living creatures, that at the same time are at the bottom of the food pyramid of some other ecosystem that could very well be us?
It’s very encouraging that the US is moving forward with its plans to recognize the costs involved in our economic development via the cap and trade system proposed. It’s only fair to our children, to the next generation that we recognize and pay for those costs, and not simply “steal” from them or impose those costs on them. I say we will all be better and our economy not only will not suffer but become stronger (through forced innovation).
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