In article <3784A7A4.B583C439@hotmail.com>, marklongman@hotmail.com wrote:

HATTORI nobuo wrote:

Great theory. I assume you've figured out a reasonable way to get all these tickets distributed to me. A ticket for every polluting substance I use overthe entire year. I'll have many tickets. I'll have so many tickets. Wow, I'll have more tickets than the national lottery. Don't get me wrong, I do like the idea. How could it be made to work?

Tickets aren't practical. If it was practical it would be the best way to deal with pollution. Perhaps we'll get to that level of technology where we can measure and manage tickets in an efficient manner. It certainly couldn't be done with physical tickets, just too much hassle. It would take a very powerful computer system to coordinate such a system over an economy. Perhaps a smartcard containing all the necessary information could be created and linked to a national computer.

An interesting point would be the distribution of tickets - to everyone or the lucky few? It would be a very useful tool against poverty if every person in every nation was given the same "right to pollute". People in undeveloped countries would use almost none of their entitlement and be sell their rightsto others, providing cash to cover A) damage done to that country by pollution and B) excess funds for investment. But it would be almost impossible to get multinational corporations and wealthy nations to agree to

this - a more likely scenario would have rights to pollute allocated overwhelmingly to industrialized economies.

I'd like to hear somemore from you about this - it's a very interesting idea.

1999.7.11