Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Inconvenient truth?

Wendell Cox links to a European study which reveals that the US leads the world in greenhouse gas emissions reduction.

I imagine that not a single environmentalist would agree that we are doing enough. We are widely believed to be unenlightened laggards. So what is going on? Are we on the right side of the Environmental Kuznets Curve? There are many who would say we are (see here and here and here).

There will, of course, be many to argue that we can do much better. But that's the controversy. What would be the net effect of the various proposals that might make their way through Congress? We got to where we are (the right-hand side of the EKC) not because of inspired environmental policies, but because we found ways to get rich. Richer is apparently cleaner.

Sounds like a very inconvenient truth.