The nature of environmentalism
From the Atlantic’s Think.Again Project - a 1993 article, Can Selfishness Save the Environment?
At the center of all environmentalism lies a problem: whether to appeal to the heart or to the head — whether to urge people to make sacrifices in behalf of the planet or to accept that they will not, and instead rig the economic choices so that they find it rational to be environmentalist. It is a problem that most activists in the environmental movement barely pause to recognize. Good environmental practice is compatible with growth, they insist, so it is rational as well as moral. Yet if this were so, good environmental practice would pay for itself, and there would be no need to pass laws to deter polluters or regulate emissions. A country or a firm that cut corners on pollution control would have no cost advantage over its rivals.
More or less what I was trying to hit on a couple weeks ago, but in much more eloquent prose.
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