sust-mar: Paul Hawken Lecture: FREE online book

Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 16:28:08 -0300
To: sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca
From: Daniel Haran <dharan@internetelegance.com>
Cc: Aaron Koleszar <aaronk@isn.net>,
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <sust-mar-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

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Dear sust-mar subscribers,

The critiques that were forwarded were so surprising to me, I feel the need 
to respond.

First of all, he whole book is online for FREE: 
http://www.natcap.org/sitepages/pid20.php

Chapter 1, http://www.natcap.org/images/other/NCchapter1.pdf is a good 
introduction to some of the ideas. If you look for subsidies, (bottom of 
page 13) there is an excerpt that directly contradicts many of the 
assumptions in those critiques. One wonders if all three of the authors 
published in the earth action weekly bulletin did anything more than read a 
single article.

They rightly point out that hundreds of billions of dollars of annual 
anti-ecological subsidies flow mostly to the rich, and that we should 
eliminate these. This, I believe, is a rather subversive way of approaching 
the topic - most entrepreneurs are willing to reduce subsidies, especially 
if it is across the board, but will not listen to us if we go on about how 
they are perpetuating poverty

In Nova Scotia, especially with a minority government, it would be 
interesting to see if we could eliminate most of those subsidies, and/or 
attempt a green tax shift as they advocate. These are sensible solutions 
that could appeal to many. If some heavy polluters (or their defenders) 
attempt to resist these changes, they will have to be open about it. We may 
save tens of millions of dollars, while making it less economical to pollute.

I certainly hope the NDP will support/take the lead for such policy 
changes. Howard, are you reading this?

Daniel.

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