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by gottorf 612 days ago
Then the same "implicit subsidy" goes for literally every facet of human activity. Do builders of wind turbines and solar farms also pay commensurately for the pollution in the manufacturing and development process?

Everything is implicitly subsidized because every action that any living being takes affects some other living being and the ecosystem as a whole, because we all live on the same planet. It's a meaningless statement.
4 comments
dpkirchner 612 days ago
> Do builders of wind turbines and solar farms also pay commensurately for the pollution in the manufacturing and development process?

Sure, we can assign those costs to builders, why not? There's already lots of discussion about the true cost of EV batteries and how they're subsidized.

> Everything is implicitly subsidized because every action that any living being takes affects some other living being and the ecosystem as a whole, because we all live on the same planet.

Actions don't all have the same effect so I think it's totally fair to consider their true costs.

I think where it gets a little tricky is how you decide to assign costs to people that have children or are children. But that's really getting in the weeds.

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consteval 612 days ago
> Then the same "implicit subsidy" goes for literally every facet of human activity

No, we generally pay for pollution. If I litter I pay. If I have to throw stuff away I pay (via taxes). If I have to dump dangerous chemicals I pay.

Oil industry can dump whatever they want into the air and they don't pay. You, and I, pay. We don't actually know how profitable oil is because of this.

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yencabulator 612 days ago
Don't forget that the oil industry requires a lot of manufacturing and development too. They also cause stuff on top of that.
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pfdietz 612 days ago
What an exercise in false equivalence. Does every facet of human activity have the same impact as CO2 emission from fossil fuel combustion?
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nradov 612 days ago
Why focus on CO2 emissions? That's only one aspect of pollution.
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pfdietz 612 days ago
Because of its enormous global impact.
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nielsbot 612 days ago
Ok, where should we focus it then?
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