Bad Direction #1 – Perverse Subsidies
Saving the planet could be a lot easier that one might think. According to British environmentalist Norman Myers, about $1.45 trillion is annually spent on “perverse subsidies” (1998). That’s $1.45*10^12 or $1,450,000,000,000 spent on subsidies that damages the environment and indirectly (or sometimes very directly) hurts the economy.
There should be no dubt that these money, spent in a sustainable way, could make a world of difference. As are they today, only in the wrong direction. They are the reason our seas are being emptied on fish, food production in poor countries is destroyed and gasoline in the US is cheaper than bottled water.
PS. James Martin claims that Norman Myers has come up with a figure of about $2 trillion annually. All I could find was the one above from 1998, presenting about $500 billion less than James Martin. If anyone can find a more recent study, that would be helpful.
