Monday, 22 October 2018

"Don’t ban plastics – ban littering"

A very sensible article in City AM.

My latest blogpost: "Don’t ban plastics – ban littering"Tweet this! Posted by Mark Wadsworth at 11:03

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6 comments:

mombers said...

"Developing countries with weak property rights and low environmental standards are the main cause for marine litter. Pushing internationally for stronger property rights in countries such as China, Indonesia, or Brazil"
Not sure what his point is? 'Strong' property rights have led to much more transitory populations getting booted out of their homes, ceteris paribus less likely to care about litter. And then you have Singapore.

22 October 2018 at 13:24
Mark Wadsworth said...

M, good point, why he put in that irrelevance is not clear.

22 October 2018 at 13:44
Lola said...

M and MW. I think that's the opposite of what you think. People with strong property rights tend to be more careful of their environments. Just look at things like the Aral Sea.

22 October 2018 at 15:10
George Carty said...

How much was the Aral Sea disaster the result of the region being part of the Soviet Union, which wanted (for political reasons) to be as self-sufficient as possible and didn't have any wetter territories that were warm enough for cotton cultivation?

It is notable that in Nazi Germany (another regime which aspired to be autarkic) once of the most common gripes that ordinary Germans had with the regime (as noted by the Gestapo) was that they had to wear synthetic clothing as cotton was unavailable...

22 October 2018 at 19:21
Bayard said...

"ban littering"

Ok, if you want to stop pollution of the oceans, but it makes sense cutting back on single use plastics if you want to conserve the finite resource that is oil.

22 October 2018 at 20:12
Lola said...

B. Strictly speaking oil supply is not 'finite'. Resources are created not consumed. You could grow oil. You might use gas to oil or coal to oil plants. In any event as it became scarce substitutes would be found - hydrogen for example. And H is super abundant.

22 October 2018 at 22:04

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