bobcook39...@hotmail.com <bobcook39...@hotmail.com> wrote: Regarding leaving environmental messes to future generations. I just read > an item that noted 450,000 “brown fields” mostly in cities exist, and > that one city in Mass. Is beginning remediation. >
I did not mean to imply that all environmental messes should be left to future generations. Many should be cleaned up. Pollution should be reduced. Industrial processes should be redesigned to reduce waste and pollution. I meant that some environmental problems can be safely put off for a while. When we expect new technology will emerge making it easier, safer and cheaper to solve problems, it might be best to put off the problem for now. At the same time, we should avoid making the problem worse. For example, as I said, non-nuclear solid waste dumps are a problem. We should reduce waste, recycle more, and we should design dumps for the long term to avoid leaching hazardous waste into surrounding soil and water. However, in parts of the world with a lot of land, we do not need to drastically reduce the waste stream, and we should not worry too much that future generations will have to clean up these sites. No doubt they will, but as I said, they might find it is profitable. They will surely be able to do it more cheaply than we can, with robots and improved recycling technology. I am proposing a compromise solution. In some cases we should ameliorate a problem, rather than solving it completely. - Jed
