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Originally Posted by gpsman1
Obvioulsly, not every person would be able to contribute literally more than a million dollars to counteract GW. But that is the real cost, per capita, on average. Obviously large corporations will have to pick up the slack and pay for more, ( taxes, tariffs, fees, etc. ) and pass that cost along to the consumers in increased prices for goods and services. The increased cost of doing business may slow trade at addtional cost to the consumer, and increased prices may deny the poor from receiving some goods and services.
Here is an example, I don't claim it is the best example, just one I found quickly. Taken from "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Bjorn Lomborg.
The magazine Environment May, 2000 had an article on how we can buy a recyclable toothbrush to "take a bite out of landfill use". At $17.50 for a 4-pak each comes with a recycling mailer, such that the used toothbrush may be returned and made into outdoor furnature. The important question is: how important will this toothbrush be in reducing landfill?
If every person in the U.S. replaced every toothbrush with this one, it would reduce landfill by by 20,000 tons. Sound significant? In 2000 the U.S. sent 220,000,000 tons to landfill. It is estimated each person generates 4.44 pounds of garbage per day. This toothbrush reduces the average to 4.439 pounds per day.
This does not even consider the added environmental effects of the postal system handling another half a billion packages a year [ or the cost and effects of making half a billion return envelopes ]. The cost is huge, while the benefit seems slight at best.
So you guys on here tell me. What's the real cost/benefit ratio of recycling a toothbrush? You could extend this analogy to countless other items. Before long, you've spent your entire salary, and have little, if any environmental advantage to show for it.
-John
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This sounds almost like Zeno's Paradox in which an arrow is launched towards its target. Along the way it must pass through an infinite number of points, as a result, the arrow never gets there. Now we know that doesn't happen. Hence a paradox. I guess those Greeks with their slave labor were left with a lot of time to think of such matters.
I think many cities or communities have recycling programs. One benefit is the landfills for garbage fill slower, irrespective of GW. Those tooth brushes? I would toss them into the recycler.
Everything costs. Nothing goes for nothing.
When I was growing up in Chicago we would recycle incandescent light bulbs - when ours burned out we (or I) would take them to Commonwealth Edison and exchange them for fresh. Somewhere along the line that became to burdensome to CE, and the exchange was dropped. So we bought the bulbs and when they burned out we tossed them and bought more.
I look at the price of ethanol at this time as the, Bait. . . Down the line, when we Switch - that's when the price will increase because, although corn is renewable, it can and will become scarce. Food producers which has been using high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener will begin jacking their prices up as the increasing scarcity of corn ripples outward.
The price of milk will climb as the price of corn increases to the dairy herds. Eventually those dairy farmers will find it too costly to continue in business. As each herd becomes tomorrow's school lunch, the price of milk will increase.
For me? I think I'll take my ethanol in a merlot.