Almost No Industry Profitable If Environmental Costs Were Internalized

[Geoist]

A report by Trucost compared the money earned by major corporations to 100 different types of environmental costs. They found that almost none of the corporations were making a profit.

New UN Report Finds Almost No Industry Profitable If Environmental Costs Were Included

How ironic we call ourselves a "free enterprise" system when the costs are such a heavy burden on the taxpayer.

 

[Ikari]

A report by Trucost compared the money earned by major corporations to 100 different types of environmental costs. They found that almost none of the corporations were making a profit.

New UN Report Finds Almost No Industry Profitable If Environmental Costs Were Included

How ironic we call ourselves a "free enterprise" system when the costs are such a heavy burden on the taxpayer.

yeah I know, I mean, companies should be allowed to pollute until rivers catch on fire. PROFIT!!!

 

[joG]

A report by Trucost compared the money earned by major corporations to 100 different types of environmental costs. They found that almost none of the corporations were making a profit.

New UN Report Finds Almost No Industry Profitable If Environmental Costs Were Included

How ironic we call ourselves a "free enterprise" system when the costs are such a heavy burden on the taxpayer.

An other way of formulating that would be to say that the prices to the consumer would be higher. If the cost of meat is 18 times higher than the revenue, that tends to mean that your steak will cost you 18 times more than it does now, when externalities are priced in. Enjoy!

 

[joG]

yeah I know, I mean, companies should be allowed to pollute until rivers catch on fire. PROFIT!!!

Naw. Consumers should eat less and shower cold in unheated homes or not at all.

 

[Geoist]

An other way of formulating that would be to say that the prices to the consumer would be higher. If the cost of meat is 18 times higher than the revenue, that tends to mean that your steak will cost you 18 times more than it does now, when externalities are priced in. Enjoy!

Well, I don't eat steak, so no problem here.

Yes, costs on things like gas and a cheeseburger would be higher... as they should be.

 

[Ikari]

Naw. Consumers should eat less and shower cold in unheated homes or not at all.

Woot!!!! Profit!!!!!!

 

[Mr Person]

A report by Trucost compared the money earned by major corporations to 100 different types of environmental costs. They found that almost none of the corporations were making a profit.

New UN Report Finds Almost No Industry Profitable If Environmental Costs Were Included

How ironic we call ourselves a "free enterprise" system when the costs are such a heavy burden on the taxpayer.

It's not surprising.

The Problem of the Commons gets exponentially worse the longer it takes for the negative effects of your behavior to catch up with you.

Hence, people find it easy to claim that the 97% of scientists who took the position that AGW is real in peer-reviewed papers are in fact nefarious super-conspirators, who have managed to maintain the biggest world-wide hoax ever between thousands of scientists without one single leak from the conspiracy - it's easy to say stuff like that when you know that the big and undeniable negatives are predicted to be several decades down the road and everything until then will be plausibly deniable by the unlearned.

It's not surprising to see a similar effect regarding the overall results of pollution of all forms on the environment. If it's not killing you right now, it's easy to favor a cheap cheeseburger.

 

[Jack Hays]

Carbon dioxide / Energy
[h=1]The latest EIA CO2 emissions data shows that the U.S. is not a significant contributor to increasing global CO2 emissions.[/h] U.S. overall energy related emissions are 12% below 2005 levels, and electricity generated related emissions are that of 1993. Guest essay by Larry Hamlin EIA data and analysis shows that U.S. CO2 emissions peaked in the years 2005 and 2007 at about 6 billion metric tons per year and have steadily declined since then with…