Interesting to read that the EU has started to describe products from the US as cheap and dangerous due to the lack of environmental concern in American leadership. The global impact of the US pollution is something that deserves attention, but will higher tariffs or even an outright ban on American goods drive the changes necessary?

…products imported from the US being taxed to compensate for resulting differences in production costs. Thus EU firms would be protected against unfair, carbon-careless competition from outside.

This seems connected with another report that the EU is successfully alerting consumers to the risks of harmful products:

The European Commission has released figures showing a rapid rise in the number of dangerous goods withdrawn from sale across the European Union.

The increase is seen in Brussels as proof that an EU-wide alert system is working better to protect consumers.

[…]

Ms Heemskerk said that the high proportion of Chinese goods among those withdrawn said more about the volume of imports from China, than Chinese safety standards.

A European Commission source also said that China was co-operating with the EU by revoking export licences for some hazardous goods.

Will the US co-operate with the EU by revoking export licenses for carbon-careless goods? Or is the demand sufficient that the prices will just have to be increased in order to compel the European’s to seek more sensible alternatives.

Henry David Thoreau once wrote:

Live in each season
as it passes;
breathe the air,
drink the drink
taste the fruit,
and resign yourself
to the influences
of each.

Little did he realize how much risk would be introduced to those simple concepts by unscrupulous folks trying to make more money at the cost of everyone else. The influences are therefore not so much the air, drink and fruit, but the chemical treatment plant, the industrial rancher, the land developer….