Duvall & Associates, Inc.
BUSINESS ADVISOR NEWSLETTER
 

 Cures to pollution, global warming raise new challenges

- by Alan Duvall 

Published in Dayton Daily News  July 29, 2007 

“When constitutions of granite can’t save the planet, what’s to become of us?”      Tragically Hip 

Global warming and pollution.  Few doubt the existence of the world-wide malady but measuring effects of after-shocks and cures remains elusive. 

Consider electrical plants.  Convenient coal and gas generated facilities emit massive contaminants into the atmosphere.  But introduce relatively less expensive, cleaner nuclear plants and you are confronted with the dilemma of waste disposal.   

An issue brought even more to the forefront by the recent earthquake in Japan, which blasted a nuclear plant apparently constructed over a fault line.  Radioactive gases steamed skyward and wastes spilled into neighboring waters.  

Wind turbines and solar panels could be introduced, but technology languishes in the infant stage.   

The U.S. may eventually emulate Europe, which has adopted a “cap-and-trade” environmental economy wherein businesses essentially pay for permission to pollute the air, but resultant costs will be transferred to consumers. 

Even if America re-engineers its ecological mentality, overseas issues must be addressed.  Asia’s dynamic economic expansion has generated pollution evils of epic proportions – a crisis certain to explode further when its two plus billion citizens gain access to cars. 

It has been estimated 25 per cent of Los Angeles air pollution can be directly traced to vapor clouds migrating east from China. 

Personal accountability is the key.  Al Gore justifiably deserves plaudits for his Inconvenience of Truth environmental documentary.  But he likewise earns raspberries for his wasteful personal energy habits and redwood decks, justified on the basis he is wealthy and willing to pay for the extravagance. 

To enlist in the conservation effort – everyone, including the rich, must sacrifice and vigilantly reduce their personal pollutant footprint. 

“Now I’m in the mirror...face pollution.”  –Soundgarden

Alan Duvall is a certified public accountant in Dayton.  Contact him at Alan@Duvallcpa.com.  Previous articles archived at www.duvallcpa.com.