 he Natural Wealth of Nations - Harnessing
the Market for the Environment, by Worldwatch Institute
Senior Researcher David Roodman, offers solutions to environmental problems
by showing how we can turn the tremendous power of market economies away
from environmentally destructive activities and toward protecting natural
wealth and human health.
 Roodman shows how cutting these wasteful
subsidies can boost the economy and save tax dollars, while protecting the
environment. Roodman argues governments need to slash the $650 billion in
obsolete subsidies for environmentally destructive activities from logging
to mining to driving. This would pay for a $2,000 tax cut for every family
of four in the United States, Japan or Germany.
Roodman also proposes raising taxes
on harmful activities like air pollution, while cutting taxes on payrolls
and profits a tax shift that would discourage pollution without harming
the economy.
The Natural Wealth of Nations calls on governments to fundamentally reorient how they raise
and spend money in order to protect the earth. The proposals seem like common
sense but are sure to rile established interests.
These and other proposals in this
book would make the market better reflect the environmental costs and benefits
of what we do. Putting a price on pollution turns environmental protection
into a profit opportunity. When businesses are faced with environmental
taxes, many turn their expertise to creating technologies that conserve
resources and slash pollution levels. Market-based solutions for environmental
protection exploit humanity's greatest resource: its creativity in problem
solving.
Of course, governments offer most
of these subsidies with the best of intentions: stimulating development,
protecting jobs, aiding the poor. But almost all, Roodman asserts, are obsolete,
ineffective, grossly inefficient or self-defeating. To keep old coal mines
competitive and preserve jobs, he points out, Germany spends $86,000 per
miner each year in subsidies. It would be cheaper to shut down the mines
and pay miners not to work.
The book also argues that governments
need to shift an additional $1.5 trillion per year in taxes, by jacking
up levies on pollution and resource waste, and using the money to cut taxes
on work and investment.
Roodman says, "Unless we stop
subsidizing environmental harm and start taxing it, we will never save the
planet. Solving problems like global warming slashing fossil fuel use will
take changes in where we live, how we move about, and how we make everything
from bottles to buildings. No government can plan all that - much less implement
and enforce it. Only if we make prices tell the ecological truth can we
harness the power of the market for the environment." | 
