True Cost Accounting
(excerpt)
From Adbusters.org

Cost of global warming
Private insurers hit hard by global warming costs prepared a report in 2001 demonstrating that more frequent tropical cyclones, loss of land as a result of rising sea levels, and damage to fishing stocks, agriculture and water supplies amounted to a yearly bill of $304.2 billion.

Source: United Nations Environmental Programme, financial services initiative report, February 2001

Cost of air pollution
According to Science magazine, exposure to air pollution affects “death rates, hospitalizations and medical visits, complications of asthma and bronchitis, days of work lost, restricted-activity days, and a variety of measures of lung damage.” A World Health Organization study of France, Switzerland and Austria found that their health costs due to traffic pollution amounted to approximately 1.7 percent of GDP, dramatically more than the cost of treating injuries from traffic accidents.

Source: CNN.com “Traffic pollution 'kills thousands every year' “ September 1, 2000

In Canada, the province of Ontario estimates that air pollution costs its 12 million residents at least $1 billion annually in hospital admissions, emergency room visits and worker absenteeism.

Source: Ontario Medical Association, “The Illness Costs of Air Pollution Ontario” June 2000

And the World Bank reports that in China – home to some of the most polluted air in the world – the deaths and illnesses of urban residents due to air pollution cost an estimated 5 percent of GDP.

Source: World Bank “Urbanization and Urban Air Pollution” in Beyond Economic Growth, 2000

Cost of driving
What would it cost to drive if the price tag of gas and cars included air pollution, road construction and maintenance; property taxes lost from land cleared for freeways; free parking paid for by taxes; noise and vibration damage to structures; protection of petroleum supply lines; sprawl and loss of transportation options; auto accidents; and congestion? A number of researchers have tried to answer this question, and John Holtzclaw of the Sierra Club profiled eight studies that, when averaged, estimated the true price of gas at $6.05 a gallon.

Source: John Holtzclaw “America's Autos On Welfare” Sierra Club

As for vehicles, transportation analyst Todd Litman has calculated that the external costs of driving would add $42,363 to the sticker price of a shiny new car, based on a 12.5 year lifespan.

Source: Todd Litman, “Transportation Costs & Benefits,” June 2004

Here's a comprehensive yet highly readable discussion of driving externalities produced by Redefining Progress:

Source: Beyond Gas Taxes: Linking Driving Fees to Externalities by Mark M. Glickman, March 2001

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

An ecological footprint is the amount of productive land area required to sustain one human being. Globally, there are about 1.9 hectares of productive area per person, but the average ecological footprint is already 2.3 hectares. So we would need 1.5 Earths to live sustainably.

The largest footprint belongs to citizens of the US, at 9.57 hectares. Five Earths would be needed if everyone in the world consumed at that rate. People in Bangladesh, on the other hand, need just 0.5 hectares. And China is somewhere in the middle, at 1.36 hectares.

But what will it look like in a few decades, when China has a population of 1.5 billion? Supposing that Chinese levels of consumption then are equivalent to American levels now, the Earth doesn’t stand a chance. If the US provides the benchmark for global consumption, 25 Earths will be needed to satiate everyone’s wants.

Calculate your own personal ecological footprint

For more information visit these websites:

redefiningprogress.org
footprintnetwork.org