@longtail4711
We have clean water we can drink. Standards for potable water have only gotten stricter, and the municipalities are managing to keep up, or almost keep up, (the city water near me has too many tri-halomethanes, which is another way of saying the reservoir has too many fish in it before the water's chlorinated. Bad for you, but not as bad as, oh, say, Hepatitis A, or Cholera. And far better than it was 50 years ago.)
Air quality has only improved in the US, and presumably Europe. Places that are still experiencing economic growing pains? Yeah, I understand China has air as bad as it ever was in the US.
Okay, forests and other wilderness areas are an issue. We're not really getting any back, not counting places that are or were too hazardous to visit like the former border between the Germanies, the area around Chernobyl, or the beaches of the Falkland Islands (landmines that the penguins aren't heavy enough to set off, but which make humans stay away if they want to keep their limbs; leftovers of a war in the 80's.) Otherwise, once land is in human hands, and human uses, it tends to stay that way.
Cars are cleaner than ever, and getting more so.
I can't speak to garbage, but I suspect we're making progress there, too. I haven't heard as many cries of medical waste on the beaches, lately, but maybe people just got tired of yelling about it. We haven't had a river fire in a few decades, either.
And then, the linchpin. Corporate greed.
So many wanted this one gone first, and the rest is their plan to get there. To roll back to a "simpler time". They'll continue to ask, beg, and legislate humans into a corner, trying to starve this one beast. Oh, for the idyllic years of pastoral living.
Never mind that pastoral living stinks, literally, (though not as bad as downwind of a major hog operation or a feedlot.)
Never mind that corporate corruption is not a new thing. The Robber Barons of yesterday weren't Merrill Lynch and Enron, but they were there. Look up "Lincoln County War" for one measure of how bad it could get. And that was a single strongman local with ties to the state government.
Never mind that, in many cases, those corporations are more able to navigate, or plow through, the red tape that is thrown up to achieve those idyllic goals. You'll notice that some of the most well heeled corporations LIKE the idea of carbon credits. It squashes competition.
46
@longtail4711
We have clean water we can drink. Standards for potable water have only gotten stricter, and the municipalities are managing to keep up, or almost keep up, (the city water near me has too many tri-halomethanes, which is another way of saying the reservoir has too many fish in it before the water's chlorinated. Bad for you, but not as bad as, oh, say, Hepatitis A, or Cholera. And far better than it was 50 years ago.)
Air quality has only improved in the US, and presumably Europe. Places that are still experiencing economic growing pains? Yeah, I understand China has air as bad as it ever was in the US.
Okay, forests and other wilderness areas are an issue. We're not really getting any back, not counting places that are or were too hazardous to visit like the former border between the Germanies, the area around Chernobyl, or the beaches of the Falkland Islands (landmines that the penguins aren't heavy enough to set off, but which make humans stay away if they want to keep their limbs; leftovers of a war in the 80's.) Otherwise, once land is in human hands, and human uses, it tends to stay that way.
Cars are cleaner than ever, and getting more so.
I can't speak to garbage, but I suspect we're making progress there, too. I haven't heard as many cries of medical waste on the beaches, lately, but maybe people just got tired of yelling about it. We haven't had a river fire in a few decades, either.
And then, the linchpin. Corporate greed.
So many wanted this one gone first, and the rest is their plan to get there. To roll back to a "simpler time". They'll continue to ask, beg, and legislate humans into a corner, trying to starve this one beast. Oh, for the idyllic years of pastoral living.
Never mind that pastoral living stinks, literally, (though not as bad as downwind of a major hog operation or a feedlot.)
Never mind that corporate corruption is not a new thing. The Robber Barons of yesterday weren't Merrill Lynch and Enron, but they were there. Look up "Lincoln County War" for one measure of how bad it could get. And that was a single strongman local with ties to the state government.
Never mind that, in many cases, those corporations are more able to navigate, or plow through, the red tape that is thrown up to achieve those idyllic goals. You'll notice that some of the most well heeled corporations LIKE the idea of carbon credits. It squashes competition.