I saw a post where a communist was blaming capitalism for global warming. Of course, this ignores the fact that past communist regimes have been some of the worst polluters in history. [1] [2] It also ignores the fact that there actually has been research on the effect of economic freedom on air pollution. Research conducted by economists Joel Wood and Ian Herzog (2014) finds that economic freedom is associated with less air pollution in a data set of over 100 countries (after controlling for other confounding factors). Furthermore, in regards to carbon emissions, we cannot find an effect of economic freedom on carbon dioxide emissions. [3] Thus, the claim that capitalism is causing global warming is simply unfounded. Citations: [1] Soviet Union destroyed the environment: rand.org/pubs/commercial_books/CB367.html [2] The Chinese communists destroyed the environment as well: assets.cambridge.org/97805217/81503/frontmatter/9780521781503_frontmatter.pdf [3] Herzog and Wood 2014: fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/economic-freedom-and-air-quality.pdf
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 16:00:02 +0000
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