Hacker News Reader

Comment by only_as_i_fall | Hacker News Reader

We just need to align incentives. If externalities were factored into the cost of imported fruits for example, it wouldn't even be a problem. As it stands do you even know what the relative carbon cost of growing or importing an apple vs a watermelon is in your area? Do you know how to tell if a fruit is grown locally or not while standing at the supermarket? Do you think the average person can reasonably be expected to make those judgements?

View on HN

Some things yes, some things no. I suspect many people realize there are no local producers for a lot of things (I don't think North Dakota has a lot of Coconut production), and seasonality is also important (not a lot of apples are grown in January in New York). But even when it's obvious, people still make choices.

Including externalities would be an interesting path. I don't know what that would realistically look like though. Gas tax?

I'm very much in favor of a carbon tax that aims to capture most of all sources of pollution. If you just tax gas you could get into a situation where it's more profitable but more wasteful for example to grow produce hydroponically because diesel is highly taxed but electricity generated by burning natural gas is not.

Just the effect of making less green options more expensive would help, but of course this would be even better if the money collected from such a tax was used to invest in green infrastructure which could balance the original pollution.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com