Its interesting to listen to someone who disagrees that the power of the dollar, or in my case the pound, can make a real difference on environmental issues. I can see what he's trying to say but I disagree, to quote Bill Clinton (I think!), "It's the economy stupid!".
By that I mean that money is the ultimate influence for the majority. While in an ideal world large companies would listen to the concerns of everyone that is concerned about the environment they wont. The nature of company law, which ever part of the western world you live in, works such that the directors are legally obliged to serve only the making of profit, even where that means breaking the law in circumstances where the gain from doing so is greater than the consequences.
So companies, who do most of the damage, will only respond to demand from their customers. Electricity companies will only start buying electricity from renewable sources when their customers threaten to walk if they don't.
I agree with him though that we have to think very carefully about what the threshhold is that will make the average person choose that more expensive electricity company that uses wind power, or the more expensive or lower quality paper that is made by recycling. What is it going to be? And how do we convince people to lower that threshold?
Its interesting to listen to someone who disagrees that the power of the dollar, or in my case the pound, can make a real difference on environmental issues. I can see what he's trying to say but I disagree, to quote Bill Clinton (I think!), "It's the economy stupid!".
ReplyDeleteBy that I mean that money is the ultimate influence for the majority. While in an ideal world large companies would listen to the concerns of everyone that is concerned about the environment they wont. The nature of company law, which ever part of the western world you live in, works such that the directors are legally obliged to serve only the making of profit, even where that means breaking the law in circumstances where the gain from doing so is greater than the consequences.
So companies, who do most of the damage, will only respond to demand from their customers. Electricity companies will only start buying electricity from renewable sources when their customers threaten to walk if they don't.
I agree with him though that we have to think very carefully about what the threshhold is that will make the average person choose that more expensive electricity company that uses wind power, or the more expensive or lower quality paper that is made by recycling. What is it going to be? And how do we convince people to lower that threshold?