SOC 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Cost Accounting, Externality
Document Summary
Inequality compels environmentally harmful and socially unnecessary economic growth. Inequality increase irresponsibility of richest within each country and among nations. Richest people are able to isolate themselves from environmental issues. Inequality diminishes social resilience and weakens the collective ability to adapt to accelerating environmental change. Inequality hinders collective action aimed at preserving natural resources. If you have a political system that subsidizes big oil companies, the kinds of actions that are incentivized are environmentally harmful. Inequality reduces political will to solve environmental problems and the possibly socially-regressive effects of these policies. One of the reasons for this is because it is going to cost money. True cost accounting would account for the human impacts of environmental pollution. Often fenceline communities of low-income and people of color, or toxic hot spots where residents live right next to heavily polluted industries or military bases.
