The second picture is a measure of the trash that people create (or municipal solid waste) in kilograms per day.
Comparing the two pictures is obvious. Raising incomes does NOT solve all the problems, in fact it leads to a very glaring cost (called a negative externality in economics).
For me, this is a reminder that development is about more than people's income. It's (more importantly I would argue) about people, about relationships. With God, ourselves, others, and creation. More on this later!
Whoops, I didn't mean to cut of China and Russia...
ReplyDeleteI think one of the main environmental problems the world faces is the centralized direction of resources. It is vital to avoid the problem of the commons if environmental problems are to be minimized. (Truly) private enterprise will bear the unforeseen costs of environmental action while governments will spread these costs over the populace in an effort to hide them.
ReplyDeleteI can think of two examples of the private sector solving environmental problems off the top of my head. Some ranchers in Texas have the last remaining animals of a few species of African horned deer. Waste Management Inc. has found a way to pipe methane gas from decaying waste back into the grid. This amounts to reuse of resources.
If you want to read more about this sort of thing, check out the Property and Environment Research Center (www.perc.org).
Good point and very interesting, I didn't realize that there was an organization like this.
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