Does Environmentalism Have a Cost?

This question is not so much a moral question but one that has to do with concepts and facts that are important to understand in order to get the ethics or socio/political part right. What seem to be moral questions are not always purely moral ones or even moral ones at all.

On pp. 172-173 of an ethics textbook used at another university (Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues), the author Barbara MacKinnon writes about pollution controls and environmental cleanup or control in general:

“If we clean up the smokestacks, then emissions are reduced and acid rain and global warming are curtailed — important benefits. However, this also creates costs for the companies, their employees, and those who buy their products or use their services.” She also then says in the next paragraph: “…if we have a fixed amount of money or resources to expend on some environmental project, then we know that this money or these resources will not be available for work elsewhere or to buy other things.”

Is this true? Is it a problem? After all consider the following:

If we build factories to make cars or medicines, life will be more convenient and healthier — important benefits. However, this also creates costs for the companies, their employees, and those who buy their products or use their services. … And if we have a fixed amount of money or resources to expend on cars and medicine, then we know that this money or these resources will not be available for work elsewhere or to buy other things.”

Does that mean we should never spend money because if we do, we won’t have it? Why does there seem to be no problem in the second case, but there does in the first case, even though the two cases seem to be economically analogous? What is going on here?

And after you spend your money, is it not available to buy other things? I spent money on Windows for my PC, and that money seems to be available for all kinds of things, since Bill and Melinda Gates give away a billion dollars a year ($20 million a week) and I’ll bet most of that money came from people like me who bought Windows and other Microsoft products.

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