A follower writes,

My question concerns the legitimate concern with pollution in large urban areas across the globe. I have come to believe that CO2 emissions are not a threat to our climate. But many of the things spewed into the air and water as a result of industrialization are harmful to people. It seems to me it is good to clean up our air and water for the sake of the health of many. Do you have any comments or resources that would help think through these issues?

Yes, definitely, it’s good to clean up our air and water for the sake of the health of many—not to mention the aesthetics of our landscapes!

The good news is that environmental history tells us that this is exactly what happens as societies overcome poverty.

Because poverty brings far greater risks than air and water pollution, it makes sense for societies to tackle that first, and then, after having conquered it, tackle pollution. And that’s what history tells us they’ve done—and because of improving technology at lower and lower costs, they’re able to do it at lower and lower levels of prosperity than in the past.

The key to understanding this is what’s called the “environmental transition,” or the “environmental Kuznets curve,” named after a famous economist. The thrust of this insight is that as societies transition from subsistence agriculture, which is invariably a state of almost universal and very severe poverty, to early industrialization, the industrialization lifts people out of poverty at the same time that it results in more air and water pollution. But the benefits of the increasing wealth far outweigh the harms of the poverty—a fact clearly evidenced in falling rates of disease and premature death.

As these societies reach various levels of economic development, they can afford, and they value, reducing pollution emissions. So, in the next stage, emissions peak and level off, and then they begin to fall. The wealthier the society becomes, the more, and the more rapidly, the pollution emissions fall. In time, particularly as service and technology begin to outweigh industrial manufacturing, the air and water become cleaner than they were before the industrialization.

All of this illustrates a fairly simple principle: A clean, healthful environment is a costly good, and as with all costly goods, wealthier people can afford more than poorer people. I’ve discussed this, along with a wide variety of other subjects, at some length in my monograph What Is the Most Important Environmental Task Facing American Christians Today? That’s available from our online bookstore, and I hope you’ll order it and find it helpful.

Featured image showing air pollution over Medellin, Colombia, adapted from a photo by Milo Miloezger on Unsplash.