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Old 02-23-2012, 01:24 PM   #167 (permalink)
jamesqf
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheEnemy View Post
Cigaret smoking doesn't quite fit, becasue there are other environmental issues besides global warming. But if you equated smoking with polluting in general then it would be pretty close.
I think it actually does fit, perhaps better than you think. Suppose tobacco didn't actually cause all those really serious long-term health problems like cancer & heart disease. There's still be all sorts of minor unpleasantness, like smokers feeling free to stink up any room they happen to be in, fires caused by careless smoking, and so on. And of course we taxpayers would still be subsidizing tobacco growers.

Likewise, there are all sorts of unpleasant things we have gotten as side effects of a (cheaply) fossil-fueled world, from power plant emissions urban congestion to 40-foot RVs. Now most of these might not cause serious harm, but as with smoking, it'd still be a nicer world if we weren't subjected to them.
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