Friday, June 02, 2017

U.S. leaving the Paris Climate Agreement

And there you have it.

Trump has announced that the U.S. will be leaving the Paris Climate Agreement. All because it will cause the U.S. to lose jobs.

If jobs are lost because companies are not environmentally-friendly, I think the onus should be on the companies to comply with climate rules even as they take on production. Change their methods of production, look into what they are using for raw material, you know, make an effort. It may be a bit more costly, but in everything we do, there is a cost. That's the basics of economics. Companies either bear the monetary cost of environmentally-friendly production, or society will have to bear the social cost of pollution.

Personally, I think these rules are good. They force companies to think about the environment, so that they bear the monetary cost of production, rather than passing it on as social cost to society as a whole. Companies will find ways to be profitable no matter what the rules--necessity is the mother of invention. Instead of allowing companies to grow lazy and still reap profits at the expense of the environment, we should keep these rules to protect our environment, since companies will find ways to profit anyway.

Oh well, I am not the leader of any country, so I guess what I think or say doesn't really matter. Time will tell if decisions are sound. I just hope we still have an Earth by that time.

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