Category: Pollution Impacts on the Economy

The answer is yes, even though the idea of distributing polluting permits can be morally debatable. Let’s explain this idea with one general principle: the earth can tolerate a certain amount of pollution without having serious consequences. After all, anybody who peed in a lake can’t be blame to contaminate the water after spreading a… Continue reading Distributing polluting permits can actually reduce pollution?

We saw that external costs exist and they are directly related to pollution. Inevitably, to fight pollution we need to invest capital in order to improve our equipment and repair the damages that are already done. One thing we can’t ignore is that we are going to pay for the damages no matter what, even… Continue reading What does “the cost of doing nothing” mean?

Pollution becomes an expense when the result of an activity causes damage to someone else. When producing goods, a factory can inflict cost on a population if it doesn’t take on accountability for polluting.

Pollution is tricky because in most cases no one owns the air or water. In fact, it is quite difficult to establish any kind of accountability framework for protecting natural resources.