From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sat Jun 30 2001 - 01:54:32 MDT
On Sat, 30 Jun 2001, Bill Douglass wrote (commenting on my idea
for "global" cost accounting for environmental costs) wrote:
> This is an interesting idea, Robert. Could you (or anyone) recommend any
> readings on this idea of taxing products based on their "total global
> impact"?
I'm sorry Bill but I'm unfamilar with this literature. Others
on the list might be able to make recomendations. Clearly this
is a question of how one eliminates the "tragedy of the commons".
Just as the U.S. should compensate the Maldives for any rise in
sea levels that remove land from productive use, China should
compensate the U.S. for any acid rain it produces from increased
coal use.
I suspect a Google search would turn up some interesting articles
for things like "full environmental cost accounting", "taxing
environmental degradation" etc. There are people on the list
who are much better at making the search engines do tricks than
I can.
It is useful to keep in mind however that plagues can turn
into riches on the turn of a technological dime. Carbon
is ultimately going to be a very precious resource. The
burning of carbon and putting it into the atmosphere is
currently viewed as a bad thing. In a generation or two
I think it is highly likely that many people will be very
grateful to their ancestors who made so much carbon available
for (relatively) free harvesting.
Robert
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