Toyota worked on its hybrid fleet, using research and development to answer the challenge posed by environmental regulators. Ideally, this is the response of companies to regulation, and the prosperity of Toyota and the failure of GM was once viewed as a cautionary tale. As consumers do not always buy what is 'good for them,' and good for the environment, regulatory pressures are required to eliminate or tax products and foods that harm the environment, such as gas-guzzling cars, corn-fed beef and pesticides. This makes using these products either illegal or more expensive and costly for consumers, thus creating an artificially higher demand for more environmentally-friendly products and increasing the incentive for companies to provide other products.
The problem with viewing regulation as a solution to environmental and economic problems, however, is that R&D does not always yield the expected returns on investments. Toyota's efforts to create hybrid cars now seem overly hasty. Regulatory efforts to improve the American diet have met with political roadblocks, as advocates of conventional farming and subsidies for American cash crops have powerful interests in Congress. Additionally, simply because regulations are put into place does not mean that effective new technology will come and consumers will alter their habits quickly enough for a satisfying short-term payoff of environmental improvement and economic expansion.
There is a solution to overconsumption, of course, but it is not necessarily a politically palatable one, or one which will stimulate the economy: to buy less and to use less. Car pooling, public transportation, biking, and other low-cost methods are also ways to use less fossil fuel....
Therefore even if the government intervention reduces economic output in the short-term, the economy will see long-term benefits from the policies. This is a variation of the infant industry argument, which suggests that emerging industries need additional protections and that such protections will ultimately be paid for with a strong industry. However, to adopt such an assumption is essentially a gamble. The government would, with the increased regulations, be betting
Environmental Regulations in Public Transit The negative effects of air pollution are that it can force illness on us. It can produce burning eyes and nose and an itchy, irritated throat, in addition to difficulty in breathing. The cause for certain diseases like cancer, birth defects, brain and nerve injury and long-standing wound to the lungs and breathing passages is found to be some chemicals in polluted air. Severe injury or
Regulating Oil and Gas Drilling and Transport The American economy runs on energy produced from oil, coal, natural gas, hydroelectric power, nuclear power and renewable sources like solar and wind energies. In fact according to a report in the Congressional Research Service, oil provides the United States with 40% of its total energy needs. It is used in myriad ways, providing "…fuel for the transportation, industrial, and residential sectors" (Ramseur, 2012).
Environmental Justice in the United States: Policies, Beliefs & People/Places Involved During the course of my college career, my interests and passions have changed, gradually evolving to an intensified mix of all that my Interdisciplinary Studies major encompasses. I began my college career seeking a Mass Communication degree; a course of study that focused primarily on community organization and mobilization. After feeling the harsh reality of advertising and public relations evils, I
As the author and activist Michael Pollan has noted: "The only way you can keep a cow alive getting this much corn [necessary to fatten the animal] would be with antibiotics. And they get large quantities of antibiotics with their feed every day. They get rumensin, which is technically an ionophore. it's a kind of antibiotic that helps with the bloat and the acidosis. And then they get tylosin,
Environmental Economics Economics and Nature Conservation From early childhood, one is taught of the importance of the surrounding environment in all human activities. Forests for instance are crucial sources of fresh air and clean water, as well as raw commodities that support life. Nevertheless, mankind continues to trash the woodlands, and as such jeopardize the future of the next generations. In a context in which next to 5 million hectares of forests
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