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How do per capita income and per capita pollution relate?

Tim Haab over at Environmental Economics writes about the relationship between environmental degradation and development. Haab mentions, of course, the Environmental Kuznet's Curve (EKC). The Wikipedia article is a little on the sparse side, and while I suppose I could do something about that, for now I'll just point to this summary.

In short, the EKC says that as per capita income rises, per capita pollution travels along a bell curve: first it goes up, but as people gain the disposable income necessary to value such things as clean air and water, it peaks and heads down. The idea has been around for a while, in blogosphere years anyway. It is not free of empirical shortcomings, and there's much debate about its legitimacy, as Haab mentions.

The EKC raises some normative questions: If people are just barely able to survive, is it reasonable to expect them to care about environmental degradation? In addition, is it actually necessary for developing nations to go through the environmentally destructive phase of development in order to reach the "other side of the curve"?

The relationship between development and environmental health that the EKC charts is seen by many politicians as a choice -- either the economy or the environment, as this comment points out. The Apollo Alliance and others have made it their focus to shift the dialogue away from such a dichotomy.

Japanese buyers buy up Patagonia’s eco-themed t-shirts

Patagonia Japan introduced a line of organic cotton t-shirts in January that sported messages on the front and back addressing environmental problems in various regions of the country. They donated $5 from the price of each shirt to Japanese environmental groups. The t-shirt line was completely sold out by the end of March.

I don't know a lot about the political climate in Japan with regard to environmental issues, so I can't tell if this is a great success story or not. Is this a triumph for environmental awareness or a triumph for the latest materialistic shopping fad? I guess I would argue it's positive either way, because some of the profits are going toward environmental and conservation goals, and it's raising awareness.

At the same time, however, I don't think that a similarly themed line of clothing would ever meet with such success in the U.S. (go ahead and prove me wrong if such a thing already exists). Wearing a shirt supporting the cleanup of a Superfund site or the protection of a wilderness area immediately labels you as a leftist enviro-lunatic in this country. Which may be fine for some of us, but we're not going to set any sales records ...

Hail the Cabs!

Hybrid taxis to hit the streets of New York City this fall Six different hybrid models will debut in New York City’s taxi fleet this fall, thanks to a recent vote by the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission. Some commissioners had previously expressed reservations about the leg room (or lack thereof) in hybrids, but after […]

Brown vs. Sword of Education

Law students help eco-groups for free and get educated in the process When a nonprofit environmental group with a shoestring budget seeks to confront big government or corporate foes in court, where can it turn? Increasingly, the answer is: law students. Some 30 law schools around the country now host environmental law clinics (nearly half […]

Let Down Your Giardia

Filtering water may not be the answer to most backcountry illnesses Went to the backwoods and ended up with a case of the runs? You probably blamed the water. But according to some medical and wilderness professionals, it is poor personal hygiene, not unsafe water, that usually bedevils the bowels of wilderness backpackers. Medical researcher […]

Switch Emitters

Led by U.S., five nations craft new climate-change pact Australia, China, India, South Korea, and the U.S. have secretly negotiated a global-warming pact that could steal the spotlight from the Kyoto Protocol — or so the U.S. hopes. According to advance word from a meeting of Asia-Pacific nations in Laos, this fledgling “Asia-Pacific Partnership for […]

A really depressing paper about climate change.

A few days ago Roger Pielke Jr. pointed to a paper (PDF) by Tim Dyson of the London School of Economics called "On development, demography and climate change: The end of the world as we know it?" Pielke called it "refreshingly clear thinking on climate change." That's true, if by "refreshingly clear" he means "weep-silently-aplogize-to-your-children-and-throw-yourself-out-a-window depressing." Abandon hope, all ye who download PDF here.

Dyson's argument unfolds in several stages, but the brutal conclusion is simple: "In all likelihood, events are now set to run their course."

Here are the five main points made, quoted directly from the abstract:

Marketing clean energy

Here's a very brief but quite interesting interview with Elise Soukup from the clean-energy marketing nonprofit SmartPower.

Theory in practice

I'm still pondering a reply to Jerry Taylor's thoughtful comment -- seems like it requires something substantive, and I never have time for substance. Sigh.

But let me just throw out one quick observation.

Even though, really, he’s not sexy

Even though, really, he's not sexy. So scrawny and white-bread. PETA adherents are even nuttier than I thought.

They voted Coldplay singer/guitarist Chris Martin and American Idol country crooner Carrie Underwood as the hottest herbivores. I'm taking that as an insult to us foxy veggies everywhere.

My picks from the list of celebs offered up as meat-eschewing hotties: Radha Mitchell, Angela Bassett, Fiona Apple, Esai Morales, and Samuel L. Jackson. Oh, and John Cleese. (Weirdest candidates: G. Gordon Liddy and Mary Tyler Moore.)