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News & ArtsMonday, December 7, 2009
News The Business of Greening Our Economy...
Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 8:47 AM
...will be good for business, says Krugman.
The truth is that conservatives who predict economic doom if we try to fight climate change are betraying their own principles. They claim to believe that capitalism is infinitely adaptable, that the magic of the marketplace can deal with any problem. But for some reason they insist that cap and trade—a system specifically designed to bring the power of market incentives to bear on environmental problems—can’t work. Well, they’re wrong—again.... Still, should we be starting a project like this when the economy is depressed? Yes, we should—in fact, this is an especially good time to act, because the prospect of climate-change legislation could spur more investment spending.Consider, for example, the case of investment in office buildings. Right now, with vacancy rates soaring and rents plunging, there’s not much reason to start new buildings. But suppose that a corporation that already owns buildings learns that over the next few years there will be growing incentives to make those buildings more energy-efficient. Then it might well decide to start the retrofitting now, when construction workers are easy to find and material prices are low. The same logic would apply to many parts of the economy, so that climate change legislation would probably mean more investment over all. And more investment spending is exactly what the economy needs.
2
The Stranger is real green. The newsprint it buys is produced in emissions-belching pulp mills. It distributes the newspaper via emissions-belching vehicles.
3
The Invisible Hand of capitalism cares nothing about ideology - in fact, it was proposed by the pro-capitalist Liberals, not the capitalism-hating Conservatives.
@1 - yeah, Carbon Tax on all imports from countries is very functional - impose a blanket 200 percent on countries that don't sign the treaty, 100 percent on those which don't reduce emissions, 20 percent on those who reduce emissions 0-9 percent, 10 percent on those who reduce emissions 10-19 percent, and 0 percent on those who reduce emissions 20 percent or more, based on an annual compliance measurement.
Works quite well.
@1 - yeah, Carbon Tax on all imports from countries is very functional - impose a blanket 200 percent on countries that don't sign the treaty, 100 percent on those which don't reduce emissions, 20 percent on those who reduce emissions 0-9 percent, 10 percent on those who reduce emissions 10-19 percent, and 0 percent on those who reduce emissions 20 percent or more, based on an annual compliance measurement.
Works quite well.
5
why doesn't the Stranger charge for it's papers? like they want people to charge for plastic bags?
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