But slowly, a new understanding is developing. It isn't economically easy to be green. The natural tendency of people is to pollute. For example, primitive biomass fuels like wood and dung are the typical first choices for cooking and heating, and they pollute the air. Cutting down trees, apart from careful planning and replanting, depletes resources.
Affluent cultures move past reliance on wood, but that takes time and money.
The new paradigm acknowledges that we are environmentally wasteful in many ways, but argues that affluence gives us the opportunity to be less so. Affluence allows us to produce more of the goods and services that help to improve the human condition, and also to alleviate the negative effects of much past pollution. Technological innovation and the growth of human capital lead to improvements in both the environment and the economy. But, if it does, the conventional green tendency to oppose economic progress in the name of environmental stewardship is sadly self-defeating. I do know, given man's sinfulness, that better things often do not make for better living.