Consume more this Earth Day
'Happy Earth Day! If you care about the environment, you should observe this special day (and others, if you can afford it) with a joyful spree of consumption, especially buying goods from people in poor countries. Writing a few letters to legislators extolling the benefits of free trade wouldn’t hurt either.
We all want to live in a clean, healthy environment. But only people whose basic needs are met, who have adequate housing, food, clean water, education, healthcare, and economic opportunity can take the time to care about protecting their environment, and can afford to do so.
By engaging in trade with other countries, we help them grow wealthier, helping them to afford environmental protection, while we help ourselves by gaining access to goods and services that it might be impossible, or ruinously expensive, for us to manufacture ourselves.
So go have some coffee, and help Africa grow wealthy enough to protect the environment. Maybe buy some nice wooden furniture from Africa or Asia. Buy a nice sari from India, or a fine tea set from China.
The sooner people grow wealthy, the sooner the environment will benefit. Now, get shopping!'
- Kenneth P Green, Enterprise Blog.
We all want to live in a clean, healthy environment. But only people whose basic needs are met, who have adequate housing, food, clean water, education, healthcare, and economic opportunity can take the time to care about protecting their environment, and can afford to do so.
By engaging in trade with other countries, we help them grow wealthier, helping them to afford environmental protection, while we help ourselves by gaining access to goods and services that it might be impossible, or ruinously expensive, for us to manufacture ourselves.
So go have some coffee, and help Africa grow wealthy enough to protect the environment. Maybe buy some nice wooden furniture from Africa or Asia. Buy a nice sari from India, or a fine tea set from China.
The sooner people grow wealthy, the sooner the environment will benefit. Now, get shopping!'
- Kenneth P Green, Enterprise Blog.
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