Worldwatch Author Offers Alternatives to Subsidies

In The Natural Wealth of Nations (1998, W.W. Norton Co. Inc.), author David Malin Roodman proposes pollution solutions that undoubtedly will prompt disagreement from leaders in industry. Roodman suggests in the new book that governments end subsidies that support environmentally destructive activities. Instead of receiving subsidies, he suggests that manufacturers be taxed for depleting natural resources and polluting the environment. Roodman, a senior researcher with the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C., says such an approach will force businesses to create technologies that conserve resources and cut pollution levels. The book offers examples of governments that have adjusted their tax systems to encourage solutions to environmental problems.