Something that is becoming obvious to everybody, except the willfully ignorant, is that we are affecting the environment. This is being shown in many obvious ways. For example we need to farm fish because natural sources cannot meet the demand of consumers. Unfortunately, natural fish supplies have been fished nearly to distruction before farming became wide spread. Land fills are obvious blights on the land, and the rate they were being created was definitely not sustainable, and the current rate becomes unsustainable with increasing population. Natural forests are being clear cut and destroyed, which do not recover sufficiently, while farms can produce a sustainable amount of lumber.
The fact is, we as a global entity, have exploited resources at unsustainable rates until we cannot anymore and have to find a diferent means to provde that resource. Eventually we find better/sustainable resources, and we use them. So why do we wait? Bottom line, money.
Why do logging companies go to forest, clear cut it, then do the absolute minimum in fire prevention, the sell the property at a loss and move on? Money. They'll do what is cost effective. There is a board room who decides, and they have to decide the fate of the land based on financial incentives. When logging gets reduced, then local mills close. So now the trees, which affect the local community, not just the property they reside on, no longer contribute. They are logged, shipped off and then the community is left worse for wear.
We need to hold these businesses accountable. They should be required for the future damage they are incurring. If the money was being reinvested into the forest then there would be plenty of work for the local community. If the forest was being properly managed then there would be jobs for managing the forest.
Another one that really irks me is the products we are making are cheap and designed to be replaced. Manufacturers sell a product, and then they recieve no more revenue for the product, until the consumer needs to buy another one. This creates a system where manufacturers are not rewarded by manufacturing quality products that people use and need for years to come. They are rewarded by producing short term junk that is quickly made obsolete. Which quickly is turned into garbage and sent to land fills. This hurts the earth on both ends. There are resources consumed and waste generated.
Few companies will make a sacrifice for moral concerns. Companies that do make the sacrifice, that do produce a quality lasting product do well for some time, then they don't seem to last. It's almost an investment to make a brand, once the brand is created it is used to sell junk.
We need to incetivise quality, and we need that incentive to be financial. What about a garbage tax. You purchase product, when the product ends up in a landfill the manufacturer is taxed based on the lifetime. If the product ends up in a waterway, the manufacturer is taxed basedon on the lifetime and the impact.