Stern Measures
Oct. 30th, 2006 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andygatesI've been saying it for years, that the real world - the economic real world, the one with businesses and consumers and the vast ravening machine that is modern capitalism - doesn't give a damn about the environment. There is no spiritual, or moral, or aesthetic, or ethical motivator, because the capital system doesn't recognise those as inputs (except in the limited field of marketing).
To those of us who do give a damn, it was obvious from the start that massive climate change would have a massive economic impact. Now finally, the Stern review says the same thing using the big words that make economists listen. A 20% drop in GDP? That's scary. When pitched as WW2 or the Great Depression, that's very scary to just the people who do actually change things.
So maybe for a change I'm hopeful. Though there's still pathetic short-termism and one-upmanship to deal with, so not too hopeful; I'm too burned to be naieve any more.
To those of us who do give a damn, it was obvious from the start that massive climate change would have a massive economic impact. Now finally, the Stern review says the same thing using the big words that make economists listen. A 20% drop in GDP? That's scary. When pitched as WW2 or the Great Depression, that's very scary to just the people who do actually change things.
So maybe for a change I'm hopeful. Though there's still pathetic short-termism and one-upmanship to deal with, so not too hopeful; I'm too burned to be naieve any more.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 07:32 pm (UTC)The government here is trying to sell people on the "glory" of a becoming a carbon neutral country. Apparantly it's going to make our products sell so much better in export markets, and somehow (they're a little vague on details) it's going to make the local economy much better. To help achieve this increase in local economy they're examining a set of incentives (fines and penalties) to encourage businesses to do better.
With the extra costs of compliance (and stiff penalties for production) I think only one sector is going to see any increase is business - everyone else will just be hit by lower profit, lower wage rises, lower spending power.
And the government wonders why no-one takes them seriously. They only just woke up this year to the fact that all the export produce is affected by carbon-miles from having to ship from the bottom of the fish-tank. And that they phased out the alternate fuel systems many years ago. Integity? Leadership Vision?