My answer to Will environmental interests and industry/progress always be at odds with each other?
Answer by Desmond Last:
That will in part be up to us the customers of the economic systems that provide the industries we rely on. The difference say in BMW making the Mini-Cooper in the U.K and either discontinuing production or moving production to another country is one vehicle. So can we the people influence industry enough so that rather than wait for belated goverment regulation they seize the initiative and not only produce products which have the best interests of the Planet at heart but also take positive action to ensure they use their economic power not for just for dividend profit but also for community profit. We cannot rely on Governments to save our Planet. I can buy Obama and Cameron (though I imagine Cameron is on a discount rate) for about $50,000. By that I mean I can buy some time with them or their advisers. Of course the Chinese worker, who Jeremy Hunt the UK Health Minister is so proud of, is unable to buy any time to ensure that they do not breathe in toxic fumes. Can we all stop buying products made in China to force them to implement environmental controls – yes we can. This is what will have to happen as Obama and Cameron, and Obama's side-kick into the waste-bin of History -John Kerry, seem totally unable to grasp the seriousness of the Climate Changes we are becoming subjected too. It is also a strange contradiction of the existing economic systems (if you can call them a system) in that companies produce dividends which go to Pension Funds which go to individuals, but in order to produce that dividend they have to harm the environment of the receipt-ant. There is no need for Industry to be at odds with environmental Interest if we the People show that we care more about the environment than they think we do. Governments have failed to use the tax system to reward and encourage companies to go green. Osborne the UK Chancellor who knows nothing about how to reform the current unusable economic systems we have, has given away approx 10 percent in Corporation Tax to companies for no increase in Green Productivity-Why? Because he does not understand that by not ensuring companies go green it will cost him more in the long-term as the UK loses coastline and builds more and more expensive flood defenses. So it is up to us and your children. If it is not a Green-friendly company who are not taking an active part in combating Climate-Change do not use their Products. We are almost at the point of too little to late – unfortunately Industry will soon see the effects of their opposition to climate change policies.
Will environmental interests and industry/progress always be at odds with each other?
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