process of convincing very wealthy people that this really was a problem, and that there really were costs down the road and that in the long term it would be better to prevent it from happening.

via Naomi Klein on Cause of Climate Crisis: “Capitalism Is Stupid”.

This has always been found to be true.  The cost of cleanup and relief far outpaces the cost of prevention,  but the short-term profit motive keeps people from accounting for that,  and therefore needed prevention and maintenance is neglected. This is also true for,  and the raison d’etre for Healthcare insurance,  and the countries that have recognized this best are the ones who have made it universal,  and they are the only ones reaping the benefits of that,  while the U.S. remains near the bottom of the heap in health care costs per capita.  It seems we never learn.

This has always been (although we truly only begun to see it about 30 years ago) true of the environment and global climate.  What we are paying for now in disaster relief and cleanup and after the fact future management and prevention dwarfs the costs we would have incurred had we acted when we realized this.  And that’s not even including the jobs bonanza that would have taken place just as it does everytime an economy retools itself to address new challenges.

I have just started reading “This Changes Everything” by Naomi Klein,  and I just finished the Intro (which was a phenomenal introduction which I couldn’t stop quoting- via my Kindle Share to Twitter and Facebook app)