Going Green but Getting Nowhere

By Gernot Wagner

New York Times

September 7, 2011

So why bother recycling or riding your bike to the store? Because we all want to do something, anything. Call it “action bias.” But, sadly, individual action does not work. It distracts us from the need for collective action, and it doesn’t add up to enough. Self-interest, not self-sacrifice, is what induces noticeable change. Only the right economic policies will enable us as individuals to be guided by self-interest and still do the right thing for the planet.

Every ton of carbon dioxide pollution causes around $20 of damage to economies, ecosystems and human health. That sum times 20 implies $400 worth of damage per American per year. That’s not damage you’re going to do in the distant future; that’s damage each of us is doing right now. Who pays for it?

It won’t change until a regulatory system compels us to pay our fair share to limit pollution accordingly. Limit, of course, is code for “cap and trade,” the system that helped phase out lead in gasoline in the 1980s, slashed acid rain pollution in the 1990s and is now bringing entire fisheries back from the brink. “Cap and trade” for carbon is beginning to decrease carbon pollution in Europe, and similar models are slated to do the same from California to China.

Don’t stop recycling. Don’t stop buying local. But add mastering some basic economics to your to-do list. Our future will be largely determined by our ability to admit the need to end planetary socialism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/opinion/going-green-but-getting-nowhere.html?_r=1

By A.J. Otjen

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Billings Gazette

“We don’t have to agree on climate change.

But we do have to agree on behavior change when it comes to consumption. There are nearly 7 billion people on the planet (projected to be 9 billion by 2050) and we 300 million Americans are 5 percent of the world’s population. But we consume 25 percent of the world’s resources. Imagine if everyone in the world consumed at the rate we Americans do.

Three hundred million of us are setting a standard of consumption that is about to be emulated by over 3 billion Chinese and Indians. Our standard of living is spreading throughout the world.

Each American consumes an average 150 gallons of water every day, a per capita rate which is almost four times as much as Asia and twice as much as Europe. It is almost 10 times as much as Africa, according to Mindfully.org(www.mindfully.org/Sustainability/Americans-Consume-24percent.htm).

We produce huge quantities of solid waste, an average of 4.5 pounds per person each day. Americans go through 2,000 plastic bottles every five minutes, 60,000 plastic bags every five seconds, and discard 426,000 cell phones a day. The average American office worker goes through around 500 disposable cups every year. Americans throw away 570 diapers per second. That’s 49 million diapers per day.

Not all the trash is properly disposed of. Right now there is a trash patch in the Pacific Ocean spanning an area twice the size of Texas, according to How stuff works (http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm).

…we can agree on simple, responsible changes that reduce waste and unnecessary consumption. Use real silverware and cups. Don’t waste…”

“Remember the frugal wisdom of our grandparents.”

“Portland’s upcoming ban on single-use plastic bags, which goes into effect in October, is one sign cities — and consumers — are moving away from petroleum-based plastic bags and food packaging. Growth in Oregon’s “biobased” food packaging industry — companies that use plant-based starches to manufacture bags, food containers, and tableware — is another.”

*Click on the link below to read more from this article!

http://www.oregonbusiness.com/articles/103-september-2011/5759-bioplastic-businesses-grow