There is a possibility that we might build a sustainable and more just civilization.

Since taking account of economic externalities is A way to produce a sustainable economy that is more just (and since a more sustainable and just economy may be correlated with a sustainable civilization) and since we are not immediately aware of other means of doing this, we should, to the extent possible, be talking about the possibility (and necessity) of making this change to a more transparent economy. (The effect of externalities is to hide certain costs of production from the price structure. The price structure might best be paraphrased as the panoply of incentives for trying to accomplish certain things. For creating incentives for industry to pay attention to and put effort into reducing environmental impacts of whatever kind, there is no method more efficient and fair than charging a fee that is just high enough so that most people say, "It's about right. Industry is putting the right amount of effort, because there is not any environmental impact that is too offensive, the putting of pollution and taking and degradation of resources is not being done to excess."

For example, a higher fee (any fee) on carbon emissions will give all users of energy or fuels of some kind incentive to turn toward (renewable) non-carbon fuels, without any particular program or subsidy from a bureaucratic agency serving any interest other than the general will of the people.



From Cancer Cells of Earth to Brain Cells of Earth:
A Synthesis of Human Society and the Biosphere