The Road to Real
Environmental Protection
By Carlos L. Arce
Many claim that manmade environmental pollution is a real
threat to human survival on earth, while others admit to only that possibility. To the ladder, I can only suggest that the
risk of being wrong is unacceptable.
Hence, let us just begin with the premise that manmade pollution will
destroy our planet sooner than later.
We already have a strong pro-environmental protection movement
around the world and in the U.S., particularly among college students and the
young in general. It is unfortunate, however, that it becomes politicized as an anti-American, anti-West, and anti-business tool. Those who are accused by the environmental patrol usually recoil and become defensive. All of it wasted efforts.
The movement is blind to the supreme polluter in the world,
China. It also ignores other significant polluting countries, e.g., India, Russia, and Japan. China produces twice more pollution than the
U.S. with 30% versus 15%. The other three
top polluters combined surpass the U.S. with 16%. Furthermore, China uses the most polluting
fuel, coal, for 59% of its energy consumption versus 13% in the U.S. This most populous country on earth continues
to increase its coal import by 10% annually, despite promises to the contrary. The Blame-America-First crowd would argue
that the U.S. should rush to unilaterally impose major reductions of pollution
emissions on its industry and its society as an example to the world. It is argued that the totalitarian communist
regime in China will be shamed into doing the same. This naïve misunderstanding of human nature
will only weaken the U.S. economically and militarily and allow China to
continue its quest for international domination and the imposition of communism
in human governance.
I think that it is high time that we in the U.S. protect our planet by implementing effective
remedies aimed at modifying human behavior worldwide. We must start by using American economic
power to pressure for a drastic reduction of pollution emissions in China,
India, Russia, Japan… A great deal of
the pollution emissions from those countries is created in the production of
food and other products exported to the U.S.
Without causing a country-to-country trade war, we should require that
all products imported into the U.S. carry a label that identifies the type of
fuel used and emission levels produced in its creation. When countries refuse reasonable labeling,
the U.S. should require that those products carry a label alerting the public
that the manufacturers have refused the truth in labeling requirements. Let the consumers decide. Let the environmental protection movement
activists take notice.
Additional action, at American taxpayers’ expense, could be
to incentivize foreign manufacturers, e.g. import tax breaks for clean energy
production. This is especially true for
production that uses natural gas, renewable energy, or nuclear power. The U.S. could further help the process by
subsidizing the sale of American natural gas to developing nations.
On the
domestic front, the U.S. government can use both positive and negative
reinforcement to modify popular and business behavior. On the positive reinforcement side, tax break
rewards for low emissions manufacturing and tax breaks for the conversion of heavy
vehicles from diesel to natural gas. On the negative reinforcement side, escalating energy consumption costs for homes so that higher prices kick in when a family exceeds normal energy use to live in luxury. Additionally, on the positive
reinforcement side, mandate electric energy companies to purchase excess energy
generated by home-based solar and wind equipment at normal energy prices.
Finally, the
U.S. must introduce a domestic emission reduction action plan that addresses
two principal issues, the coal industry and nuclear power. The coal industry must save itself and its
economic contribution to the nation by accelerating research in the development
of clean coal and coal gasification. Nuclear
power can be abundant and clean, except for the nuclear waste disposal
issue. We may be close to a reliable and
affordable space shuttle system that could be used to rocket nuclear waste into
space. The fear of accidental meltdown,
the China Syndrome, can be managed by constructing nuclear power farms, where multiple
cooling systems could be shared during emergencies.
Scientists will lead us to better technologies, and political leaders can legislate commonsense policies, but public pressure must be the catalyst. Unfortunately, public pressure today is mostly coming from those who insist on blaming America and demand ruinous, draconian economic restructuring. This ensures slow environmental protection progress. Let us adopt a truthful global approach, and we can all save the planet.
