MikeB on 13 March 2009
@ HappySqurriel
Except for the fact that capatalist democracies tend to have a much better environmental record than any other governmental system ...
That's not true, the US per capita is one of the most poluting countries in the world (maybe some small country like Australia was able to beat them per capita). In absolute figures the US is the most poluting country in the world by far, even beating China with about 5 times as many people.
IMO the best performing countries, show rather a combination of democratic, capatalist and social trades, like many European countries. You can have a country which advocates being competitive, social and is democratic.
For example Switzerland and Sweden generate about 3 to 4 times the wealth the US does per tonne of CO2 emitted. The EU while representing hundreds of millions more people generates less than half the pollution the USA generates.
But the EU could perform much better as well, if not for the US allowing US companies to pollute so much (which is cheaper and thus provides a competitive advantage).
