Firms can switch to environmentally more benign production technologies. Consumers can also avoid buying toxic products, recycle, and insulate their homes. Figure 4.1 Growth versus environmental quality In the short to medium term, it is not likely that these kinds of changes will produce enough improvement in the earth's ecology. In part this is due to linkages among components of consumption 'bundles', in particular linkages between housing and transport which representsubstantial expenditures and are two major sources of environmental degradation. Consider American suburbia.
Houses are large and therefore costly to build.
They are energy inefficient and cannot be kept cool without air conditioning. They have large lawns, often with ecologically destructive landscaping. To dramatically improve environmental impact, Americans would have to shift to smaller, differently designed houses, with new transportation systems and new conceptions of land use around households. These extraordinarily costly changes would take decades to complete. Linkages among consumption decisions as well as the fixed costs embodied in past decisions are therefore formidable barriers to rapid reduction in the 'environmental intensity' of each dollar of consumption spending.