To put this right, there could be a change in taxation. But there are also other ways: agreements with business; a change in society's consumer habits and state or local agreements with aware consumers, and particularly the fight by environmentalists against pollution. I myself have frequently written on the Ecology of the Poor and the Movement for Environmental Justice in the United States.

There is also talk of changes in taxation. More environmental taxes to make up for smaller social revenues. There is room for discussion. There should, at least, as regards inputs into the economy, be a tax on the loss of "natural capital" (in particular, countries exporting wood, oil, minerals and metals should pay). As regards undesirable outputs --for example, pollution--, there should be taxes like the European eco-tax on carbon dioxide emissions which has been talked about for almost ten years.

These taxes would not result in "ecologically correct" prices that measured future, uncertain and irreversible damage. They would, however, result in ecologically corrected prices, better than current prices, which are leading the economy in an anti-ecological direction.