Just charge people for the natural resources of the country via taxes. Resource and land taxes solve basically every single problem in the current American economy yet people do not want to even think about doing it.
US taxes are already complicated, in large part due to the effort to build incentives and disincentives in the way that you describe. And yet the process to build the existing incentives is inescapably political, and for good reason: if you impose a significant change to taxation, there are winners and losers on day 1. Nobody likes to lose, especially if they feel they are doing nothing wrong.
For your specific idea, the red/blue political map shows you who will probably lose.
> yet people do not want to even think about doing it.
probably because placing a price on some things seems too transactional. Not saying you're wrong, though. Just saying that's why. The alternative is allowing more rapacious disregard for the aggregate negative effects on everyone as a whole.
You're right - air's also getting a little too polluted for my taste. Maybe if I could get a hold of some taxed air, I could breath easy! We could put the pollutants back into the untaxed air too!
For your specific idea, the red/blue political map shows you who will probably lose.