Yes remarkably I’ve heard some people generalize all business’s big and small to be non green and money and capitalist driven burn the environment for a buck!
Yet some people think they are responsible people who care about what the public opinion of them is so they become green!
I don’t know but i’d like to get a picture of what you guys think about business’s in general in regards to AGW also do tell if your a skeptic or a believer! that way i can see if one way truly hates business’s!
#1 by V for Venn Diagram on 11/28/2011 - 10:51 AM
The capitalist market makes small concessions to the environmentalist movement. Obviously there is a small but enthusiastic minority of people who are environmentally conscious and go out of their way to recycle just about everything, use composts, and ride their bikes to work. Some businesses cash in by creating ‘green’ products. This isn’t a bad thing at all, and it’s good it’s catching on. Whether you believe in AGW or not, an effort to improve the environment, no matter how big or small, is no crime.
I believe that what 97.4% of climate scientists tell us is true:
http://tigger.uic.edu/~pdoran/012009_Doran_final.pdf
By the same token, I believe that what 99% of biologists tell us is true (evolution is real)
http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_publi.htm
I also believe scientists when they say the earth is round, matter is made up of atoms, and the continents were once connected.
#2 by Dawei on 11/28/2011 - 11:28 AM
Nobody hates business or economic prosperity. You won’t find anyone with half a brain who does.
Last time I checked, a free market economy was in no way dependent on copious CO2 emissions. If we had built our economy to be driven purely by clean energy thus far, it would be working just the same–no one gets richer solely from the act of emitting CO2.
You would probably be upset if a company wanted to dump toxic waste into your aquifer. It doesn’t make you an anti capitalist commie. You just don’t want to drink toxic waste.
#3 by linlyons on 11/28/2011 - 11:44 AM
quite clearly, AGW is true, and a serious problem.
business owners are generally smart enough to understand the problem.
they’re also smart enough to know that if they spend too much money making accommodations for the problem, then their competitors will be able to perform the same service for less money, and they’ll eventually go out of business.
then there are some businesses that pay lip service to AGW, and make no effort at all, other than trying to convince customers, and perspective customers, that they are attempting to address the problem.
(there’s a name for that, “Green Washing”.)
then, of course, there are companies like Exxon, who, if AGW is really addressed, are in serious trouble because what they do is in direct conflict with reducing CO2.
Companies like that, and coal companies, just have it hard.
it’s not fair to ask them to put themselves, and all their employees out of business.
#4 by Typical Oregon Person on 11/28/2011 - 12:17 PM
The problen is most people in the midwest pollute more because they are away from cities. California is all tightly woven together. The rural people resent Californians telling the what to do when they are still f-ed up.
#5 by Peter J on 11/28/2011 - 12:58 PM
Taxing CO2 will simply result in a lot less business being done, resulting in less prosperity for everyone.
They don’t hate business they hate the result of freedom in business, which is that some people get rich. They hate that, even if they are providing a service that people want. What they don’t understand is that there isn’t a lot of incentive to work that hard, or risk your own capital if there isn’t the possibility of a significant reward.
#6 by chris on 11/28/2011 - 1:30 PM
ill keep it simple
The Free market is a good thing as long as its regulated a little bit
with out business we are all screwed
SOLVING the problem
The consumer will eventually want to buy less polluting things when its 140 degrees and florida is gone but then it will be to late
So to fix the problem many world leaders want to have CO2 creids which represent a certain amount of CO2 credits that will be traded just like stocks turning it into a commodity
there are several ways of distributing CO2 credits
1. distribute to countries based on population (china and India really want this)
2. what they use now basically what the US really wants its a percent of what we use now. if its by population the US way of life will change hard core
#7 by James E on 11/28/2011 - 2:28 PM
Well I will describe the small company I have worked for the last 20 years that got shut down by the reorganization of the auto companies. The parts we were making got transferred to a Chinese company in order to clean up American industry is the way it was put. 20 Years ago we brought this work back to the US because we showed the Japanese company that had the work how we could do it faster, cheaper and with better quality than they could. My bosses hard work in getting this work has kept 150 workers employed now for almost 20 years.
We had no problems with hazardous waste because all of our cutting oils were spun out of the metal waste and returned to the machines to be reused. We put no dirty water down the drains because we had a waste water evaporator that was condensed to allow reusing the water and the recovered oils sent back to the machines. We were a clean company where the only things going out our doors were finished product to the customer from the front and clean dry metal scraps to the recycling companies from the back. And we got top dollar from them because our chips were clean and dry.
But some of the work in the US had to be sent to China for political reasons and so 150 of us are out of work including the owner and his wife and drawing unemployment or in my case social security. Nice way to reward American creativity is it not.