>On Fri, Jan 23, 1998 at 02:27:43PM -0800, James Rogers wrote:
>>
>> I just had a thought with regards to your CO2 example.
>>
>> What if companies were required to clean up their waste (in this case CO2)
>> by purchasing/creating forested land that can convert their equivalent CO2
>> output into clean air?
Isn't this one of the proposed methodoligies suggested by the Rio summit?
Aren't companies in some US states already exchanging polution credits?
>That's a good idea. (Hell, let 'em pay companies that exist specifically
>to fix atmospheric CO2 by growing wood, right?) Only it requires an
>extra level of regulation. Who's going to make sure the companies
>do what they're supposed to do?
Consumer unions? I pay for a sub to _Consumer Reports_ (although I still
just use it as a starting point for my own product evaluations). I might
pay to subscribe to a Consumer watchdog org that specifically kept tabs on
stuff like this, and had the chops to get the word out so that
consumers/citizens could respond. Could that work? Or would such orgs just
be suborned by the companies that were doing the polluting?
For example, _Consumer Digest_ is an attempt to dilute the effect of _CR_.
Companies can buy space in _CD_ and can advertise that they're a "Consumer
Digest Best Buy", with the obvious goal of confusing consumers into
thinking that it's the highly-reputable _CR_ that's endorsing the product.
>(We're back to tail-chasing over free markets, purity thereof, etcetera. I
>think I'm going to go to sleep ...)
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