What do environmentalists1 want? They want better, cheaper, cleaner energy (all good things). For a long time, I’ve held a grudge against environmentalists because while they want these things, they are also opposed to the one known way to get it – nuclear power. Now, maybe they have a principled stance here: it’s true that nuclear power can be dangerous, but more people die in coal mining accidents than from nuclear power plant accidents. Nuclear power could also leave a mess in some cases (a la Chernobyl), but it’s less dangerous than the amount of carbon dioxide we’re putting out, and less risky if properly engineered (as long as plants are designed fail-safe, we’re okay — see Three Mile Island). So, I’ve always been suspicious that what the environmentalists really want is to throttle technology and exert some kind of control over other people.
Tag Archive for 'Environment'
Jason Kuznicki has a yet another very good post up at positiveliberty.com. This time, it’s about how societies determine value. In general, I agree with the post, but I wanted to quibble about one thing (and I made a comment to this effect):
I’m skeptical of a carbon tax in particular because even if we could determine the properly discounted value of the amount of social harm that global warming will do to the largely unknowable preferences of our descendants, it hardly follows that paying money to our current government will make things any better. We might be able to inhibit the market preference for carbon-based fuels, sure. But does the government really deserve to be the beneficiary here? By my way of thinking, a larger government is likely to be a drain on our descendants, and not a help at all.