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Originally Posted by Calgaryborn
Some of the negatives are as follows:
Increased taxes(already starting)
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Environmentalism = higher taxes? Maybe as an incentive to get the hell off of one standard and on to the next. Drive a big gas guzzling poluting car, and you pay big taxes. Drive a small eco-friendly bio-diesel or electric car and pay fewer taxes. It's all about choice.
How is being environmentally conscious increasing inflation? That's scare mongering at its worst.
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Loss of share in global markets
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Again, how so. If North America makes the commitment to cleaning up our act, and develop the technologies that place us at the forefront, how do we lose share in global markets? We don't. We become leaders in global markets.
Again, how do we lose jobs by being environmentally aware? Oh, someone used a florescent bulb, there go 10 jobs to Asia. More scare mongering. Again, if we prove to be world leaders in finding new and innovative ways to be energy efficient, the world will be forced to adopt the standards we set. Sadly, it is China and Japan that are pressing forward and making efforts to be leaders in this regard. If we don't act quickly, our competitive advantage will be gone before we take the opportunity to exploit it.
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On your plus side you are incorrect. We will not produce a healthier, cleaner planet. What we don't produce here will be produced by China or India at a higher environmental cost. The number of deaths caused by pollution will steadily increase in these countries and our political leverage will decrease as we become more dependant. Every barrel of oil we save will be burnt in one of these countries.
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That's a fallacy. China is working very hard on finding ways to meet their energy needs. They are also working very hard to clean up their environment because they know the situation they find themselves. They have built an eco-town (pop. 500,000) that will be self-sufficient with renewable energy and feature emission free transportation (the Chinese have an excellent electric vehicle production plant). They are currently building the largest damn project in the world to suppliment their power grid. They are also looking to nuclear for a source of clean power. The Chinese recognize the impact they can have on the environment and are being proactive in doing their part.
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A real time example of this can be found in B.C. Our mining industry could and should be leading the world. Instead it is nearly impossible to get a new mine up and running because of all the political intrigue. You need to spend millions on environmental studies before you can even apply to start mining. You have none profit organizations actively lobbying against you at every turn. You have to appease the native group/s who have claimed that land as theirs. A change in government during this multi-year long procedure can squash the project and cause the loss of the investment. So instead of mining here they set up shop in South America or Africa where concern for the environment our the human lives affected is minuscule.
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Damn those tree huggers! Who wants a beautiful country side when you can let the mines come in and make it look like this:
You can thank the tree huggers, because if you did move forward with mines like this your taxes would have to go up to replace every licence plate on every car, because that certainly isn't "Beautiful British Columbia".