- Joined
- Jun 24, 2010
- Messages
- 36,473
- Name
- Stu
First of all, I'd like to see where you are getting that. Second, is this taking any kind of production in mind? Just to throw out meaningless numbers to clarify what I am saying.... If country A produces 10 pounds of whatever pollution while producing 50 bushels of grain, are they a bigger polluter than country B that produces 8 pounds of the same pollutant while producing 10 bushels of grain? Or country A has a 1lb per capita pollution rate whereas country B has a 1/2lb per capita pollution rate with 4 times the population. Is country A the bigger polluter?The U.S. is the second most polluting country, so focusing on reducing ourselves would be a big start.
It may sound simplistic but this is the basis being used to say that the US should sign on to the punitive world treaties being proposed. We would be signing onto something that penalizes us for being both more environmentally advanced, AND a more efficient producer. So no... reducing ourselves further while other countries continue to expand their inefficient and highly polluting ways, only puts us at a market disadvantage therefore increasing their advantage and the amount they will produce and pollute. In the end, we actually do further harm because we have allowed enormous amounts of pollutants to go unchecked while we put US industries at an even further disadvantage and actually completely price them out of the market.