You made no “point”. You just asserted a silly point of view. Big difference.

I agree that Kyoto is unfair; I also think that if any country comes up with new technologies to comabt global warming, it will lkely be america.

My point was that Claudia’s logic /argument is wrong.

http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/02/vclav-klaus-about-ipcc-panel.html

Or, click my name…

Joan, perhaps we should also consider pollution output as a byproduct of production and not penalize countries that produce cleanly. It’s true that the United States pollutes more per-capita than other nations but we also produce more per-capita. Most other nations do not provide goods and services as cleanly as we do. Mechanisms such as the Kyoto Accord and other UN creations seek to reward them for it.

Oh, Yes!! Yes, yes!! Can’t you imagine Patrick Henry’s cry (were he only enlightened, as we are today) – “Give me waste management or give me dearth!”

What’s the cure for U.S. pollution? Why, I suppose it would be the dissolution of property rights on the expectation that one will keep others’ property cleaner than one’s own. Interesting theory.

Or perhaps, maybe, attributing the prevalence of “pollution” to the presence of a political economy based on free markets is just a silly idea. Doesn’t even explain the litter left behind at Woodstock.

My belief is that Americans since the 60′s have become probably the most self-important, self-centered, self-serving, and self-indulgent people the earth has ever seen. Perhaps – just perhaps, mind you – those qualities have more to do with the propensity to waste and then throw away, than the underlying system of political economy that has produced such a wealth of consumer goods in the first place. Ya think?

For some reason this also reminds me of a study I read not that long ago from which I remember precious little except this:

Per capita, the U.S. throws away three times as much container-waste as Mexico.

Per capita, Mexico throws away three times as much food as the U.S.

Which of these would be considered “pollution”? Well, never mind.

As I recall, this result was linked to inadequate “containerization” in Mexico – be there such a word.

You could not be more wrong; you could try, but you would not be successful.

America has one of the most fully established private property regimes in the world, it is also the biggest polluter per capita.